


Fever

by Anonymous



Series: Fever [1]
Category: Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Relationships, Established Relationship, Family Issues, M/M, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:33:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 50
Words: 108,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23429281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Victor would do anything for Roman but he is reluctant to fulfill his latest request (and with good reason).
Relationships: Bane/Jonathan Crane, Harvey Dent/Bruce Wayne, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel, Roman Sionis/Victor Zsasz
Series: Fever [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1816042
Comments: 235
Kudos: 290
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have recently come to terms with the fact that I have a thing for A/B/O stuff and was waiting for someone to write something involving Roman and Victor but since nothing was appearing and I was getting some ideas myself, this happened. Because I always have to be the person to make things weird (hence the anonymous). Please listen to the tags before reading and don't take this too seriously. This is mostly just for me.

One of the hardest parts about living in Gotham was the traffic. Not only did it have normal major city problems like in New York or LA where it was bumper to bumper during rush hour, but on top of that there was always the possibility of rounding a corner only to run into someone robbing a bank or part of the street being blocked off so Gotham PD could investigate yet another murder. Sometimes there were aliens and monsters straight out of a horror movie running amuck and that always meant at the very least an hour delay. After living in Gotham for nearly all of his life, Victor Zsasz had learned to account for possible traffic outbursts whenever he had to drive somewhere but even then there was always the chance of getting caught in the middle of a robbery. Those odds increased dramatically whenever he had to go down to the other side of town in order to run errands for the boss. Tonight was a prime example of that. All that Victor had to do was run down to tailors and pick up Roman's latest suit (custom-made out of materials all imported from Sicily simply because) and then return to his penthouse for dinner scheduled at six. It was a quick errand, one that could have easily been accomplished in less than twenty minutes if Victor had left earlier, but he hadn't and, as a result, his twenty-minute trip stretched out into a seventy-minute one. It wasn't even a robbery being perpetrated by a serious threat like Killer Croc or the Joker, all it would take was one bullet or even a tranquilizer dart to take the bastard down! Victor had a lot of time to sit in his car and plot how he would have handled the situation if he was in the GPD (God forbid. He'd rather carve his own face-off). He finally strolled into the penthouse an hour late to their scheduled dinner, carrying Roman's suit in one arm and twirling the keys to the car in the other. "Hey Boss," Victor called out into the penthouse. He couldn't see Roman anywhere when he walked in so he assumed he was waiting in the dining area. Victor set Roman's suit and the car keys down on the back of the sofa and rounded the corner to meet him. "Sorry I'm late. The Riddler was holding up a bank over on twelfth so traffic was backed up. I-"

Roman was sitting at his usual spot in the center of the dinner table, a plate of food set out before him and in front of the seat next to him, Victor's seat. Somehow the food was still warm; steam was wafting up from both plates. "Oh." Had Victor misunderstood the time they were supposed to eat? Had it been 7 instead? Victor took his seat next to the other man and caught a whiff of the food before him. It smelled like ambrosia after "You weren't waiting for me were you? Santigo could have just wrapped mine up and put it in the fridge for me to heat up later."

"Actually Santigo has the night off." Roman replied, the first thing he said since Victor had returned home, and took a sip of water from the wine glass to his left. Victor cocked an eyebrow at this remark. In all of the years he had been working with Roman Sionis his cook Santigo had never had time off. Even when the man accidentally sliced the tip of his finger off, Roman just dragged a very confused and afraid doctor parting in the club up to tend to his employee. The fact that Santigo had not quit after this incident was something Victor admired and respected. That and he would miss the man's homemade fries more than he felt comfortable admitting out loud to anyone. No new chef would ever be able to master the crispiness like Santigo did. "I made this."

"You cooked?" Victor asked. "You hate cooking." And cleaning. And driving. And doing laundry. And just about everything and anything that could have been labeled as a menial task. Roman had staff for things like that. 

Roman just shrugged his shoulders and took another sip of water. "I was bored." He explained and that was more than enough for his bodyguard turned boyfriend. Roman had a tendency to delve into trying things he normally would touch with a ten-foot pole in order to curb his boredom. One time Victor had returned home from carrying out a hit to find his employer in the process of knitting a scarf. His excuse? _The power went out and the guy won't be here for at least an hour_. "I made your favorite."

"My favorite," Victor repeated and finally took the time to look down at just what was on his plate. "Bacon-wrapped scallops with pineapple quinoa." Not exactly his favorite but close enough. Roman must have seen the flash of defiance in his eyes because the man's lips curled up into a smirk,

"Your favorite 'fancy food', you heathen." He corrected himself. "I know your real favorite is corndogs but damn it man, I have standards." Like hell Roman Sionis was going to try and _deep-fry_ something in his own house!

"It's more than alright." Being with Roman had certainly improved the man's palate. Victor pierced one of the scallops with his fork and popped it into his mouth. Roman had even remembered to burn the bacon the way he liked it! "Thanks Boss!"

Victor was able to eat four scallops and half of his quinoa before realizing how eerily quiet everything was. Normally Roman would dominate their dinner conversations, going into explicit detail over his hatred of another Gothamite, his theories about the Batman, plans for events at the club, some new item that he just had to have, all the while Victor nodded along, only piping in with the occasional yes or no. He didn't mind. He actually preferred it. Victor had the habit of being unable to sustain proper conversation the second something edible was placed before him so long as he could continue to eat, he was happy and Roman was sated. Tonight though he hadn't said a word after his jab about Victor's love of junk food. The man looked up at his employer and tried to read him for a sense of the mood he was in. Nothing seemed wrong. Roman was just sitting there, picking at his food, staring at Victor from behind his Cartier sunglasses. Victor swallowed what was in his mouth and took a sip of the Le Pin Roman had paired his dinner with. "Is everything okay Boss?" 

"Everything's thing." Roman replied just a little too quickly to be convincing and further cementing Victor's growing suspicion that something was definitely wrong. He leaned across the table, placing his hand under his chin and let out a soft sigh, "I just..." "You have very pretty eyes, you know that Victor?"

_Oh_. 

Well, that clarified the matter. Now that he understood what was going on Victor allowed himself to relax. A part of him had been worried that he had done something to offend the other man without intending to and that it would take him days to piece together what was eating away at his lover, but he knew what this was and, in hindsight, it was downright silly of himself to have not figured it out earlier. "There it is." Victor couldn't help but chuckle. "Has it been four months already?"

Roman frowned and straightened up. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You always get all clingy and sweet when your heat is about to hit." Victor explained. It had taken him a lot longer than needed to figure this out for himself but after a couple of years of working for the man, Victor noticed things. For one, Roman hated anything that could be considered traditional for an Omega (with the exception of his skin-care routine which he sank nearly a grand into each and every month without fail), for what Victor considered to be obvious reasons (IE: Daddy Sionis wanted his son to be an alpha and when that didn't happen, tried to marry his kid off to secure business relations). For another, as much as he denied it to anyone who had the balls to bring it up, Roman always was in a weird mood whenever he was about to go into heat. Softer, sweeter, delving out hugs to any of his friends who happened to be visiting the club or catching an employee as they attempted to work (however, since he and Victor had begun sleeping together, his bodyguard had become the only person worthy of Roman's hugs), and halting his demands for bloodshed until it passed. As much as he missed carrying out the hits, Victor had to admit he enjoyed Roman practically leaping into his arms after being pulled from his side for more than five minutes. Victor couldn't help the cheshire grin that spread across his face, "It's cute."

Cute and a sign that they were both in for some fucking amazing sex. Victor cast a quick glance over at the clock. All of the pharmacies would be closed by now but he could send a message, double-check the times, or something, at least get ready to pick things up tomorrow. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened the google app, looking for the nearest pharmacy's contact information. "I'll message the pharmacy and see how quickly I can get some rubbers and-"

"You don't need those."

Victor looked up and over at the other man. Roman was still, staring at him like he had grown another head. Sheepishly, Victor slipped his phone back into his pocket. Maybe he was being over-eager? Overthinking things? "Oh. I didn't think we didn't have any leftover from last time-" He was pretty sure that they had gone through their supply last time though...

Roman caught his gaze and replied simply, "We don't."

"I don't..." They both knew what could happen if Roman's heat hit and they weren't prepared for it. There had been a reason Victor had started keeping track of Roman's clingier moods and figured out the route to the nearest pharmacy on foot. They had both talked about this in the past; back when they had first started sleeping together, and Victor thought that they had been on the same page about _that_. "Roman?"

"I've been thinking lately," Roman said in response and inched carefully closer to the other man. "About family stuff." 

"It's bullshit-" Victor interjected, spouting his boss' mantra back to him. Family stuff, it was all bullshit. Pure, unadulterated bullshit. A type of bullshit that they had killed people over in the past. A type of bullshit that Victor had been under the impression he never had to deal with. A type of bullshit that was ill-fitting for a man like Roman Sionis, regardless of his status as an Omega. 

"No." Roman said and with just the simple wave of his hand, all of Victor's words died in his throat. "Don't interrupt me, please Vic, not now."

Oh no. Vic was a term of endearment reserved by Roman for only the most dire of situations. This wasn't good. Victor reached for his glass of wine and took a good long sip, until nothing remained. Roman took this as his cue to continue. "I'm not young anymore." He stated after allowing his bodyguard to drink without saying a word. Whether this was to give Victor enough time to get good and liquored up or if he was struggling to admit out loud that he was not immortally youthful was impossible to determine. "I just realized the other day that time to do this is running out and I..." 

Roman trailed off and licked his lips, tried to think of the best way to spit it out, but the words seemed to be failing him. This wasn't like asking Zsasz to pick up his dry cleaning or have somebody killed and Roman knew that. Roman hated that but he had come this far, it was too late to turn tail and run now. Reaching across the table, Roman took hold of Victor's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I want a baby." He stated. "Your baby. Now."

**_Now_**. Like by somehow adding the word now the demand changed and Victor was just going to snap his fingers and make it happen. Suddenly Victor was very aware of just how empty his glass was and he would do anything to refill it, even if it meant going up against the Batman unarmed and with a broken leg, he would do _anything_. Roman gave his hand another squeeze, "Y-you can speak now." He said and if his voice faltered for a moment, neither man commented on it. "Victor? Say something. I'm feeling all kinds of uncomfortably exposed right now."

Victor wasn't drunk enough to deal with this. "Roman," He said softly. "Boss. Sweetheart. Love of my life," He gave Roman's hand a gentle squeeze and inwardly prayed that it would be enough. "You don't really want a baby."

"I do." Roman insisted. 

"No." Victor shook his head, "You're just worried because you think time is running out. That's not true. But even if it was you don't want a baby." For what Victor considered to be obvious reasons. Babies were the opposite of everything Roman Sionis held dear; babies were dirty, loud, entirely dependent upon someone to take care of them and Roman was barely able to care for himself. He _wouldn't_ be able to care for himself if not for the cook, the driver, the maid, and the bodyguard he kept on his staff. What was he going to do with a baby?! 

"I do."

"No, sweetheart, you don't. Babies are messy, and loud, and needy, and everything that you hate and you don't really want one. You just think you do." Victor leaned in to press a kiss to Roman's cheek, hoping that some gentle sign of his affection would be able to soothe the inevitable building frustration his employer had with the situation. Before he could, however, Roman pulled back. "Boss?" Victor asked and when that didn't get him any results he tried again, "Baby? Sweetheart?"

"I'm going to bed," Roman announced and rose to his feet, leaving more than half of his dinner completely untouched. He started walking towards the bedroom, hands stuffed into the pockets of his robe. 

"Roman-"

"Goodnight Victor."

Well...that was a positive sign at least. Roman was pissed, that could not be denied, but he wasn't in one of his searing, white-hot rage moods, otherwise, he would have told his bodyguard to go fuck himself and hurled a couple of silk pillows at him before stomping off to bed. Part of him wished that he'd gotten a pillowed tossed at his head and the order to make himself comfortable on the couch. That part of Roman was predictable, something that Victor knew how to respond to, how to coax him down from, this new part of Roman...well Victor just didn't know what to do. After he heard the door to the bedroom slam shut, the exhausted bodyguard grabbed the bottle of Le Pin from the middle of the table and refilled his glass before deciding that it didn't matter and taking a good, long swig from the bottle. He had earned it.


	2. Chapter 2

Victor woke to the smell of something fried. After arguing with Roman last night and polishing off the last of the Le Pin, the bodyguard had found that he had lost his appetite and retired to the couch for the rest of the evening after setting the leftovers in the fridge for later. He sat up and stretched, waiting until his back had cracked before staggering up to his feet. Thank god Roman believed in having furniture that was comfortable as well as fashionable or else Victor was going to be needing to schedule appointments with Roman's acupuncturist. Victor glanced over into the kitchen and caught sight of the source of the smell. After enjoying his first night off in God knows how long Santigo was back to work. The cook looked up from what he was stirring and offered the other man a grin, "Morning Victor." He greeted the other man. "You take your eggs scrambled right?"

"Scrambled, salted, with a side of hot sauce," Victor answered and strolled into the kitchen to join him, and leaned back against the counter. "How'd your night go?"

"It was alright. Went and saw a movie." Being in the employ of the Sionis family for so long had prevented Santigo from developing many substantial relationships outside or those connected to the family. Santigo, a man who had been hired fresh out of culinary school by Richard Sionis back when Roman was still a toddler and made the move to Gotham from Louisville without so much of a second thought, didn't appear to mind. If he did, he never said anything about it to the Sionis(es) or anyone else on their staff. "That new Star Wars. I'll tell you what, as much as I like that there Adam Driver, he got nothing on ol'Ewan."

"You're right." Victor couldn't see any faults in the man's logic. 

"Did you spend the night on the couch?" Santigo asked if it wasn't already obvious from the bodyguard's wrinkled clothes from the night before or the stiff way he stumbled into the kitchen. "What did you do to piss off the big man?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Before Santigo could press any further the soft click of the bedroom door opening caught both men's attention and they turned their heads to see Roman finally emerge. Roman was still clad in his robe from the night before only now his more casual clothes had been swapped out for a pair of pajamas (his black silk pair, not his favorite set which had been embroidered with pictures of his own face). Their employer yawned and rubbed some sleep out of his eyes and Santigo gave the eggs another quick stir. "Morning Mister Sionis. I got a good old traditional breakfast going for you here-"

Suddenly Roman's stride into the kitchen came to an abrupt halt. He froze in place, eyes widening as even he tried to figure out what had stopped him, then doubled over and wrapped his arms around his stomach. Victor was at his side in less than a second, "Boss!" He exclaimed and placed his hands on Roman's lower back to try and guide him back up. Roman didn't say anything. Just stayed crumpled over gagging. 

By now Santigo had let the eggs sit for a moment and strolled casually closer to the two men on the floor, "Mister Sionis?"

As suddenly as he collapsed Roman straightened back up, "Jesus Christ!" He screamed, loud enough to make both Santigo and Victor jump. "How many eggs you cooking? A gross?!" Roman clamped his hands over his mouth and nose, choking back another mouthful of bile. "Fuck! The smell's getting to me! Fuck!" 

Roman pushed Victor's hands off him and stood up, albeit unsteadily. Victor offered him an arm to lean on but his boss ignored the offer. "I'm going to go take a shower." He announced, "When I get back that egg stench better be gone!"

"Not a problem Sir. Not a problem at all." Santigo replied. "You just want the bacon and toast then?" 

The man in question didn't answer him. He just waved his hand as if this somehow constituted an answer and stomped off in the direction of the bathroom, two sets of concerned eyes watching him go. The second the door closed behind Roman, Victor made his way back over to the stove, grabbed a clean plate, and started scooping the eggs onto it. "I'll eat them." He told the cook. Not the way Roman was intending for them to ditch the offending food but they'd be gone nonetheless. "I'll eat them, you just grab some fabreeze or some shit."

After spending nearly his entire professional career working for the Sionis family Santigo had come to take their tantrums with a grain of salt. Best to just do whatever they're demanding in that moment then try to provoke another outburst. "Do you know if Mister Sionis has some more of that pumpkin pecan room spray?" the cook asked, "I swear, you could cover up a murder with that shit."

"You're not wrong." If only the man knew. While covering up the scent of death and decay may not have been it's intended purpose or anything that the salesperson at Bath and Bodyworks had in mind when they first recommended it to Roman, it turned out to be a useful little product. Victor clamped his hand on the older man's shoulder and gave him a gentle squeeze as a sign of approval. "Thanks Santigo." 

"Thank you, Victor. I would hate to let all that food go to waste." Even if it wasn't a gross like Roman had predicted, Santigo wouldn't feel good about tossing four perfectly good scrambled eggs out. Being in the employ of a murderous gang leader was one thing but _wasting_ food? That was the worst crime of all. "I hope Mister Sionis feels better."

~~~

Roman took his breakfast in his room. His excuse was that the scent of eggs still lingered and was polluting his kitchen but Victor knew better. The fact that Roman had come out of the bathroom nearly an hour after he'd entered it sporting his favorite pair of sunglasses on top of the pajamas he'd worn in was an obvious sign. He took the plate of toast and bacon offered to him by Santigo and without a word brought into his room where he stayed for the majority of the day doing God knows what. Victor took this opportunity to linger around the apartment on the off-chance that Roman decided to come out. When he got like this it was best to let Roman cool off and let him come to you. If he were to try and get into the bedroom to apologize right now, Victor would be the next person hanging upside down from a warehouse getting his face carved off. He would get his opportunity to apologize later in the day anyway. 

That moment came that very night when the pair were making their rounds in The Black Mask Club. After making himself as presentable as he could without having access to a fresh set of clothes, Victor lingered by the lift and waited for Roman to decide to go down. Sure enough, his employer sauntered out now dressed in the suit he had sent Victor to pick up the previous night and his beloved sunglasses. Victor hit the button, they both stepped inside, and once the doors were secure and they were moving the bodyguard took the opportunity to get a little closer to the other man. He tilted his head to the side, resting it on Roman's shoulder and getting himself the faintest twinge of a smile from the man in question. "Hey." He said softly. "Are you feeling any better?" Both in regards to his stomach and to what had happened last night. Roman could choose which one he wanted to respond to. 

"Much better," Roman answered him and kept his eyes forward, his hands folded together behind his back, trying to appear as professional as possible. Victor had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes. As much as he loved the man it could not be denied that Roman Sionis was a drama queen. 

"Roman," Victor said. 

"What?" Roman asked and finally turned his head to gaze down at him. A victory! Taking full advantage of the situation, Victor leaned up to press a quick kiss to Roman's lips. If they weren't on the way to work and in a position to get easily caught, he would have deepened the kiss, maybe even push Roman up against the wall of the lift and take it a little further, but this was fine. This was sweet. They could handle a little sweet in between the dirt every now and again. Roman seemed to agree with him because that faint little smile he had been nursing transformed into a grin. "Victor..."

"I know you're still pissed about last night." Roman wasn't the best at concealing emotions. While there were some perks to this (when Roman got excited, he got really excited, like a child who had just been told they were going to Disneyland, and when Roman was feeling particularly romantic there was always fireworks and this sense of adoration that was completely heart-melting), it came with obvious downsides. Downsides like fits of rage and the occasional hysterical crying fit in the bathroom. "But I know you, Roman. And I know I'm right about this. You just wait and see this whole baby-thing, it'll pass and you'll be so much happier that you didn't go through with it." Whatever was going on with him right now, it was just another one of his mood swings, one that Victor hadn't figured out how to pull him out of yet. 

Roman licked his lips and looked around, "Yeah." He said and looked like he was going to say something else but the doors to the lift opened and their conversation ended. He stepped out into the club, adjusted his collar, and did a quick survey of the club. His grin quickly faded when his eyes landed on a familiar pair, replaced instead with a grimace. "Fuck!" 

Victor darted to Roman's side, "You good Boss?"

"I was good." Roman snarled in response, "Look who's here."

It didn't take long for Victor to see what was upsetting his employer. Sitting off to the side in one of the booths, both dressed to the nines and clearly ready for a night out on the town, where Harley Quinn and that punk kid who had stolen the diamond a couple of months back. Two of the bitches who had tried to kill them and had come pretty god damn close. "Shit." 

"You better head back upstairs. Just until they beat it." Whereas everyone in Gotham knew that Roman was still alive, albeit, with a severely damaged ego, knowledge of Zsasz's survival was limited to a few parties. Particularly people who would not let it get back to the Crossbow Killer who, without a doubt, would be back to gunning for Victor's head if such information was to get back to her. 

"I don't like you being alone with them." For what should have been an obvious reason. Victor was a bodyguard, he was supposed to keep Roman safe. Victor was also sleeping with Roman and whatever you wanted to call this relationship they had, Victor cared for him and worried about him and felt the need to keep him safe. Those two bitches were a direct threat to that. 

"I know." Roman said and before Victor could say anything else on the matter, silenced him with another kiss, this one longer and far more passionate than Victor's quick little kiss in the lift. Roman even nibbled on his lower lip, traced the outline of Victor's lips with his tongue, before pulling back and adding, "I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself and I'll message you if I need you."

Victor couldn't help but grin, "Boss."

"I know. I'm such a sweetheart. Now get outta here."

Roman watched and waited for Victor to step back into the lift and return to the apartment before turning heel and striding across the club until he was at the booth the two girls were occupying. He had to wait. If Victor had even the faintest idea that he was going to try and confront the two, he'd have hauled Roman back up to the apartment bridal style and what would that do for his reputation around Gotham? It was damaged enough as it was. Harley and Cassandra saw him coming. They had been watching the two men from the moment they first stepped out of the lift, which also meant that they witnessed the kiss firsthand. Whatever. If they brought it up he'd just rub it in their faces that he was the only one getting laid. "Ladies." He stated upon reaching the booth and leaned against it's side. His gaze landed on the kid who had stolen his diamond and something inside of Roman's mind clicked. "Aren't you underage?"

"Isn't your boyfriend still wanted by the Huntress?" The kid, Cassandra, fired back. "Oh, right, she thinks he's dead. Wonder what she'd do if we were to let her know where to find him alive and kicking-"

"Alright. I get it." Roman waved her off. That still didn't explain the obvious. "What are you doing here?"

"We just closed a big deal today and wanted to celebrate," Harley informed him in a matter-of-fact tone with that stupid shit-eating grin of hers that made Roman wish he could just pull a gun and shoot her point-blank. "Then I remembered the drinks in this place are free."

"They're not-" All Harley had to do was gesture upwards and Roman stopped. Fucking bitch. He snapped his fingers and one of his waitstaff, a new girl he had hired a couple of months back who he, for the life of him, couldn't remember the name of. He gestured to the two girls, "All of their drinks tonight are free. Bring them some of tonight's specialty but keep an eye on them for the rest of the night." 

The waitress smiled and nodded, and scurried off to the bar to start mixing. Roman took this as his cue to leave but he only made it one step before Harley was reaching across the booth, snagging hold of his arm and pulling him back. "Ah, Romy, don't be so glum!" She insisted. "Come back! Have a drink with us!"

As much as spending more than one second in Harley's company made him want to hurl, staying close could mean preventing any more unfortunate incidents like what had happened to his previous driver. If things grew sour he could always message Zsasz to come settle things or just make a run for it. Slowly Roman slid into the booth next to the clown, "I'll stay," He agreed. "I'm not drinking with you."

"Yeah, that may be a good idea." Cassandra said, "Didn't want to say anything and be rude but you're looking a little green around the gills there."

"Fuck off." 

"So," Harley started to say and Roman could feel the beginnings of a migraine coming on. Though he wasn't certain he was pretty sure that his right eye started to twitch. "How ya been?" 

"You are this close to me just saying fuck it, blowing your head off, and just packing up and moving to Vietnam." 

"Aww, Romy, don't be such a sourpuss. Ya lost, we won, just accept it and move on and you'll be so much happier!"

How fast would it take him to get papers to get him and Zsasz out of the country? They would need to go someplace with no extradition treaties to the United States but also someplace with a happening nightlife scene. Vietnam seemed promising but Roman was going to have to do more research before he considered relocating there. Unfortunately, this meant he couldn't just pick up the nearest sharp object and slit the clown's throat, as much as he would have loved to. His cocktail waitress thankfully took that moment to reappear, tray in hand. "Here you are ladies," She announced and set the two drinks down on the table. "Two espresso martinis to start you off. Anything for you boss?"

"Just some water." Roman said and waved her off. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Harley's mouth twist up into a smirk. Her eyes moved from the martini to Roman and back to the martini and Roman could feel the veins pressing against his forehead. Was this her masterplan? To make him have a heart attack in the middle of his own establishment?! "If you say what I think you're about to say I'm gonna fucking kill you. I am dead serious." 

"Alright. I ain't saying nothin'." Harley murmured and took an extra-long sip from her martini. "Is that a new suit? Never saw ya in that one before."

"Yes, it is." See? Now, this was proper conversation. Roman adjusted his collar once more and brushed a little bit of dust off his sleeves. "Italian. I had Zsasz pick it up for me last night." 

Harley took another sip from her martini with that smirk still plastered on her face. "Interestin'." 

Roman was about to ask her what exactly she meant by that when his cocktail waitress reappeared with his water. "Here you go, boss!" She said with a chipper little smile, bouncing off to attend to other customers. 

"Thank you." Roman called after her. That was fast. He was going to have to learn her name if she kept up this great work ethic. Roman took a sip and when he looked up from his glass, he found himself face to face with Harley Quinn, still smirking at him and looking like the cat that had finally caught the canary. There was something unsettling about her eyes; she knew something. Something that she wasn't supposed to know. Roman slammed his glass down on the table and sat up completely straight. "What are you staring at?" He demanded. 

"Does Mister Zsasz know?" She asked. A simple question and yet it was more than enough to send a shiver rolling down the gang leader's spine. 

"That you're stinking up my club? Yes. Yes, he does know that."

"That's not what I'm talkin' about Romy. I'm talkin' about the other thing." Something flashed across her face that could only be described as a fleeting moment of panic. Whatever it was, it was enough to finally wipe the smirk off Harley's face. She leaned in closer to the man and lowered her voice to a whisper, "This is a new thing, right? Like ya weren't when we tried to blow you up?"

Oh. So that was it then? Yes, Roman supposed that would be a reason for anyone to panic no matter how badly they wanted the other person to be dead. He sank back, briefly considering whether or not he should even answer her. Then again what was the point? She had been able to piece it together after being in his company for less than ten minutes. It was only a matter of time until the rest of Gotham figured it out too. What was the point of denying it now? "No." He answered. "No, I wasn't then."

"Oh thank God," Harley heaved a sigh of relief and Cassandra cocked an eyebrow at the two adults sitting across from her. So the kid hadn't pieced it together yet. That was something at least. "Don't get me wrong Romy, you're a piece of shit, but even I have standards and blowin' ya up when you're expectin'...not my cup of expresso." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I have to say that it is awesome beyond words that some people are actually interested in reading this! Thank you! Second, at this point, I have a bit of a basic plot going around but I'm just seeing where the story takes me so I don't know when the next chapter will be up or even how long this going to be. As long as I'm still coming up with ideas and putting off homework, you'll keep getting this nonsense. Thanks again! :D


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Instead of working on my essay due in a week, I wrote this chapter instead. I like to call it "Roman gets some slightly professional help and Harley considers themselves frenemies"

"So, ya wanna talk about it?"

Roman could not imagine what about his ice-cold demeanor suggested that he wanted to speak to Harley fucking Quinn and her teenage charge about his situation. Was it the sunglasses? Could the clown not see the fire brewing in his eyes with the shades blocking them? Well tough to that because Roman was keeping them. The gang leader grunted his response, "With you. No. Fuck no."

But of course, the infamous Harley Quinn wasn't going to take no for an answer. Not when she had one of the most powerful men in Gotham over a barrel like this. "Ya sure?" She asked, "Used to be a psychologist remember? Just think of me as your own little therapist."

"Quinn, if I needed a therapist I would have found one. What makes you think I'm going to talk to you of all people." There was a mile-long list of people who would disagree with what Roman just said, stretching back to the very day he had been born, but every single one of them could go straight to hell as far as he was concerned. Doctors, his parents, a couple of exes, that fucking prick Bruce Wayne, what did they know? He was perfectly fine. He knew what was best for himself. He-...He'd consider it later when Harley wasn't up in his face.

Speaking of which the damn clown wasn't giving up. Somehow one of her pale, slender arms snaked it's way around Roman's shoulders and pulled him closer. Roman winced and cast a quick glance back over his shoulder at the lift. Now would be a good time for Zsasz to go against his orders and make a triumphant appearance but he knew he wouldn't. Zsasz would wait upstairs until Roman called for him which would be impossible to do without the girls noticing. Not to mention that Victor coming into break up the fight ran the risk of Harley telling him what she knew and then...then Roman didn't know what he was going to. "Cause I get ya." Harley's voice pulled him back out from whatever reality he'd zoned off to escape this hell. "I understand ya."

Roman scoffed. Plenty of people thought they understood him. Each and every one of those people had their names featured proudly on the list of people who thought he needed a shrink, with the obvious and only exception being Zsasz. What was it he said to that low-life wanna-be gangster back before things hit the fan? _Here comes Roman Sionis, he was handed life on a silver spoon, gin and tonics at five, all of the luck_. That was what the public thought, it was what the public was meant to think, and anyone who thought they understood anything deeper weren't even scratching the surface. Not even _Dr. Harleen Quinzel_. "And I won't tell nobody. Cass won't either."

"So you honor patient-doctor confidentiality. How professional." And here Roman was thinking that she would be jotting down everything she got from her clients for some tell-all book of trash. "I'm still not saying a word to you. Why are you so concerned anyway?" As if they hadn't been at each other's throats trying to make sure the other ended up in pieces in Gotham harbor mere months ago. As if she actually cared. 

"Morbid curiosity," Harley replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "I have no doubts that the child you're carryin' is the Anti-Christ and I want to see if they come out with horns and little hoofs for feet."

Roman gnashed his teeth together and slammed his fists down on the table, snarling " _ **Fuck you!**_ " in the bitch's direction. Harley jerked her arm back and inched away, hands up, while Cassandra frantically tried to scout out the fastest way out of the club. For a moment no one said anything. Roman sat there, panting and trying to slow his breathing back to normal, Harley with her hands still up, and Cass looking between the two. Roman waited until he had caught his breath and could register the ache in his hands before relaxing his shoulders and slumping against the back of his seat. Conversations halted as patrons waited for the sign that they should make a mad dash for the door resumed and the music picked up again. Roman hadn't even noticed that it had stopped. 

"I'm just jokin'." Harley piped up, but her voice wasn't as cocky and confident as it had been before; her way of apologizing without actually apologizing. "Actually, the more I think about it, the cuter this kid is gonna look."

Like it was ever a possibility that any offspring of Roman fucking Sionis wouldn't be cute. They were going to be adorable! Harley was fishing; was trying to divert Roman's attention away from her less than tasteful comment by playing to his vanity but by God if it wasn't working! "Think they'll have lighter hair like yours? Oh! Or maybe those sparklin' blue eyes!" She practically gushed and a very small smile formed on the gang leader's face as he pictured his child staring back at him with his own eyes. "Or they could have those big brown puppy dog eyes like Zsasz."

The smile disappeared from Roman's face and he ducked his head, directing his gaze straight at the table and avoiding any contact with either one of the girls. Eyes like Victor's...what else would their child inherit from him? His nose? Hair like his that they had to bleach every couple of months? His smile? Would it be possible, just by looking at them, to immediately know who fathered them? What if it got back to...- he would find out sooner or later, Roman was not oblivious to that, but he would rather keep any and all knowledge relating to the baby private for as long as he possibly could. Maybe the kid would look like a miniature Victor- 

"Romy?" Roman felt a hand on his back and jerked upwards in response, knocking it away. He looked at the woman sitting next to him and, as he had suspected, the hand belonged to her (It was stupid of him to suspect otherwise. Who else would have the balls to try and touch him?). "Ya said that Zsasz doesn't know."

"Yeah. He has no idea. He thinks I'm going to be going into heat in the next week."

"That how you're plannin' on tellin' him? Just lettin' him piece it together when you don't?"

No. No, that hadn't been how he'd been planning on breaking the news to him but those plans...No. It wouldn't work. Victor hadn't even wanted to hear him out. He was so certain when they spoke in the lift...Roman felt his eyes beginning to well up and before he was able to blink them back, a couple of tears managed to escape and roll down his cheeks. He lifted his arm to wipe them away but then there were another couple that escaped him. And another. And another. Until it could not be denied any further that he was crying.

"Woah!" Harley exclaimed, "Holy shit. Holy shit!"

She nudged the man until he was out of the booth and wrapped her arms around his shoulders to try and guide him along. "Follow me for a second." She said softly and started walking them both over to the backroom. Roman nodded pathetically and kept his head down. The last thing he needed was one of his employers seeing him like this. Seeing him so weak! Without looking back Harley shouted to her young charge, "Cass, watch the booth!"

With Harley no longer there to enjoy it, her espresso martini was now up for grabs. Cassandra polished off what remained of hers then took hold of her partner's half-empty glass, "You got it Chief!"

The backroom of The Black Mask Club was reserved strictly for storage. Most of the other clubs in Gotham used these spaces for offices, for roughing up any rivals who happened to be passing by or drunks who got a little too rowdy or just tried to dip out on the bill. Seeing as Roman lived directly above the club and had a string of empty warehouses along the dock that were perfect for taking care of his enemies, there never seemed to be a reason to make any other use of the space. It was just a little closet, out of the way and off to the side, nothing worth noting but tonight Roman was glad it was there. Harley got the door open and pulled him inside, and Roman took the opportunity while she was shutting the door to wipe his eyes off on his sleeve. "Why are we here?"

"Cause I knew ya'd feel even shittier if anyone saw ya crying in your own club," Harley replied. 

She wasn't wrong. That didn't make Roman want to admit it though. He shrugged and wiped his eyes off on his sleeve once more for good measure, "Hormones."

"I hate to break it to you Romy, but you're moody enough as it is. I don't think blamin' everything off on the hormones will be enough."

"Fuck off."

"So," Harley said. "Tell Dr. Quinn what's going on in that pretty little head of yours."

"Why do you care?" Roman asked. "We hate each other."

"I wouldn't describe it as hate. I always thought that we had a frenemies thing going on."

"What the fuck is a frenemy?"

"Ya know! Not quite a friend, not quite an enemy, a frenemy!" For someone who was one entrance down a grand staircase clad in a silk robe and swirling a glass of brandy away from being a diva, Roman had a lot of gaps in his knowledge of relationships. Maybe if he had gone to public school instead of whatever boarding school his parents shipped him off to Roman would have had the authentic _Mean Girls_ -esque high school experience. He would have been such a Regina George. "We used to have movie nights together."

"And you pissed in my Brita. And took my car for a joyride. And spoiled just about every movie we watched-"

"If a movie relies so heavily on a twist that having it spoiled for ya ruins the experience of watchin' said movie, then it's not a very good movie," Harley replied with an eye-roll. "Ya want to keep tryin' to distract me or ya want to talk? What happened between ya and Zsasz?"

Roman sighed. This was not how he saw today going down when he thought about it. First the eggs, then Victor's remarks in the lift, then being dragged into a conversation with Harley Quinn, and crying in his own club. _And talking to the fucking clown of all people about this shit!_ When did his life become a fucking joke? Well, may as well start laughing or die trying to fight it. "I tried to tell him." The gang leader admitted, "I told him that I wanted a kid, that I was comin' around to it, that I had been thinkin' about it...and he didn't agree with me." 

"Okay, but did ya tell him you wanted a kid or that ya were gonna to have a kid, because those are two different things." Harley asked. Roman chose not to answer that; just rub the back of his neck and avoid eye-contact, earning himself a sigh from the woman. "Romy, goin' up to your boyfriend and demandin' a kid out of the blue probably freaked him out. Make it seem sudden."

"He thinks I just decided randomly." Like he had been flipping through some magazine and decided that being a parent was the new trend that he just had to get ahead on. Like he would want a kid just to be an accessory. That he was like **_THEM_**. That thought should have sent Roman into a blinding rage, one that could not be curbed until all of Gotham laid in ruins at his feet, but it didn't. It just left Roman with this sickening empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. One that made him wish Cassandra and Harley had succeeded in blowing him up that night at the pier. "He doesn't think I would really want it."

"Do ya?"

"Yes," Roman answered immediately. "I never thought that I would but when I realized..." After he'd worked through the standard panic and confusion, took his frustration out on an old mirror, and just sat for twenty minutes with his back up against the bathroom door, he felt it. A twinge of excitement spreading in his chest and all his negative emotions just vanished in mid-air. He started thinking about them; about a child with the sweetest smile reaching up for a hug, laughing, and looking at him with such a sweet innocence that would never exist with anyone else; he wouldn't be a monster to them, a soulless gangster only looking out for number one, he would just be their mother, and thoughts melted his icy heart. 

He placed his hand over his stomach. It was still completely flat (for now) but it was strangely comforting to know that there was life there. "I want this baby. It's _my_ baby. How could I not want them?" Maybe it was the hormones but Roman was starting to get sentimental. Hopefully, it wore off after the kid was born. It was going to awkward ordering hits when he was all sappy like this. 

Of course, Harley had to ruin the moment. "What if it's a girl?" She asked. 

"They're still my baby aren't they?"

"Aww, Romy!" Harley practically gushed and before Roman had time to even react he was getting swept up into a hug. "I knew there was a little soft spot in ya!...Deep, deep down."

Roman rolled his eyes. "Fuck off." Huh. Maybe there was hope for the more bloody side of his business yet. 

Or maybe there wasn't because Harley just giggled and hugged him a little tighter. "And, it is of my professional opinion that you just tell your little bodyguard straight up. No _I wants_ or _I needs_ , just a _I am_. I seen the way that guy acts around ya, always hoverin', always doing whatever it takes just to touch ya, to stay close. He ain't going to leave you over somethin' like this." She paused, mulling over her words for a moment. That was how Zsasz acted _now_. "Actually I think your problem is goin' to be him goin' even harder with the whole bodyguard thing. You're not goin' to be able to shower without him."

"That's kind of funny considerin' this started in the shower." At least Roman was pretty sure it started in the shower after he and Victor had gotten into a bit of a scuffle with some of some of Falcone's goons that ended with Roman having to help Victor scratch another tally mark onto his chest. They needed to clean the blood and grime off and, for all of his expensive tastes, Roman was a simple enough man in some regards; he saw Zsasz fresh from a fight lifting off one of his ugly shirts revealing those beautiful scars, and starts undoing the buckle of his belt, and pulled the Alpha into the shower before he could even finish undressing. They hadn't used protection then. It had to have happened that night in the shower. "Either that or in the back of the Rolls." 

That comment earned Sionis a hearty laugh from the clown, "Get it Romy!" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still debating over what terms Roman and Victor would get their kid to call them. Any opinions will be appreciated :D


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter four, or as I like to call it, Roman Sionis gives Victor the guilt-trip.

Any moment now the doors to The Black Mask Club would be locked, the few stragglers would stumble out into the cool Gotham night, and Roman would step out of the lift without so much as a hair out of place. That did not mean that Victor was going to stop looking at his phone for the SOS text; not until he knew that Harley was gone and his employer was safe. It was a stupid idea to believe that she would strike so late in the night but with Quinn no one knew what to expect next. Victor wouldn't put it past her so, even though he had a hundred other things he could have been right now instead, he was splayed out over the couch just staring at his phone and waiting. When the doors to the lift finally dinged open, the man bolted upright and tossed his phone aside, "There you are. I was worried that Quinn may have taken you hostage."

"See, I can handle myself," Roman replied with that confident smirk of his that made people swoon (Victor included). "Didn't become a crime lord just by sitting around and looking pretty." That was just what he did now that he could afford to. 

"I know. I just don't trust that bitch. Not after everything she's done." Roman made his way over to the couch and Victor scooted over to give him some room. "Want to go to bed now or get something to eat?"

"In a minute." Roman replied with a shrug, "Victor, we have to talk about something. We can't just keep putting it off."

Oh, so they were back on this again? Victor should have seen this coming. He knew that Roman had been trying to tell him something in the lift earlier! "Right. Just to clarify is this relating to Harley Quinn and the kid or the other thing?"

Roman was not amused. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and the confident smirk disappeared from his face, "The other thing."

"I thought so." Still, a guy could hope. Victor inched closer, draping one of his arms around the other's shoulders and pulling him closer. "Roman, Boss, Sweetheart-"

"Stop." Roman said and Victor pulled back, letting his arm fall. "You made your position on the matter very clear but that doesn't change anything. That doesn't change how I feel about this." 

Zsasz tried to think of a way to respond to that but before he could he even get a syllable out, Roman leaned back against him and asked the most bone-chilling question he could have ever come up with, "Did I ever tell you about my parents Victor?"

Victor froze. He had heard enough about the senior Sionises through bits and pieces he'd pulled together from Roman's rants, from some off-handed comments made by Santigo over the years, and from the occasional news article that popped up mentioning the family. The later was always far different from the others and the bodyguard was more apt to believe the two men who he lived with, one of which he was in love with than a couple of pests with cameras whose opinions could be bought and sold depending entirely upon whoever ran the papers at the time. If there was any truth to Roman's words then Victor was glad that they were dead long before he came onto the scene. Or rather, the corpses should have been grateful, because if he had been given the chance Victor would not have made it quick for them. "Yes." He answered. 

Roman continued anyway, "Richard and Lorriane Sionis, old money, descended from two lines who came to Gotham mere years after it was founded. He, at the age of twenty-three, established Janus Corp. a cosmetics company that was quickly able to overtake the competition. By 1979, just two years later, Janus cosmetics had earned him a fortune, already building off the funds he'd already inherited from his father. As for Lorriane, well, she was a socialite. Always attending galas, throwing parties, her Christmas card list was a mile long and it was rare for her to be home before two am even on weeknights, there was always some social event going on." It sounded idealistic; a sweet little nuclear family living in the lap of luxury in a major metropolitan city. Too bad it was all a lie. "Unfortunately they were nothing more than couple of self-absorbed narcissists and deviants. Richard was fucking more than half of his staff and if they got pregnant during the affairs, well, either they'd find a way to terminate or they'd be gone. To this day I have no idea what he did to them. Maybe he just fired them but that seems hopeful. I could see him having them all killed. Either way I'm scared to get my DNA tested in case twenty half-siblings are suddenly linked to me." That would be a fucked up reunion party that he'd rather skip out on. But he wasn't finished yet. That was dad, and next was mom. 

"And Lorriane, my dear, sweet, mother...what a fucking cunt. She wasn't sleeping around like Richard, fucking anything that looked at her nicely, but she had boyfriends. Ones that kept her from home when she wasn't planning wife and mother of the year at one of her parties. Looking back, and with a grain of salt, I don't think she wanted what she got; a husband and a child. Social conventions of the time and all that jazz." Between the two of them Roman did not have much sympathy if any but if presented with a gun containing only one bullet, Lorriane would be on the receiving end. It would be a far more merciful death than what he would do to Richard afterward. "But somehow she had a child. A little boy who she dressed up and paraded around at all her parties, showing off how cute and polite and smart he was, and then never saying a word to him when they got home. But she was better than Richard. At least after he presented."

"After being a phantom for the majority of his life, Richard decided he wanted to get involved, wanted to see his alpha son and groom him to take over the company. Except it didn't happen because his son was an omega. Suddenly, his value had been diminished. Richard certainly couldn't hand the company to an omega! So, he did the only rational thing he could think of and tried to marry him off to another Gotham socialite's kid." Most of them had been his childhood "friends", people his parents forced him to socialize with, whether it be dropping him off at some unfamiliar mansion for a "play date" with some kid he had never spoken more than two words to outside of class or lumping them together whenever all the socialite wives got together to plot out an event. "Bruce Wayne, Edwin Vandergilt, Jonathan Belmont, Peter Savage even-!"

"Boss." Victor cut him off and Roman finally stopped, 

"Am I upsetting you Victor?"

"Yes." The other man couldn't help but growl. "I don't like hearing about other guys. Even if they only ever held your hand for a minute, I don't want to think about it." So he was possessive. Victor knew that and it was his cross to bear. Roman knew that and he enjoyed getting his kicks watching his boyfriend practically foam at the mouth anytime he got close to another person. There had been a reason that Dinah and Zsasz never got along and Roman would have had to have been completely blind to miss why that was. Part of the reason he even bothered getting close to the woman in the first place; talking to her and seeing Victor out of the corner of his eye, plotting a million different ways to make her suffer, and then taking him back up to the apartment to fuck him until he couldn't think of anything else and the only word Roman could scream and whimper out was his bodyguard's name. What could be more fun? 

"Imagine living through it." Coming home from school for the holidays and being _re-introduced_ to all of his _old friends._ Trying to talk to someone just for his mother to reappear behind his shoulder dragging along some teenage alpha _who was just so cute that she knew he would like them right away so it would be a sin for them not to meet_. Being woken up by his father instructing him to get dressed and come downstairs looking nice because they were having dinner with a business partner and showing up to the restaurant only to find it was a date with said partner's son _chaperoned_ by the two men. Roman shivered at the memories. To this day he could not decide which was more humiliating. "And, imagine how hurt you feel when you start talking to your boyfriend about having a child and he starts saying things, implying that you're just like them."

The color completely drained from the other man's face, "...What?"

"If you think that the only reason I want this baby is because it's a trend, that it's because all the other big wigs in this city are popping them out, that maybe I can use them later, it's not." He knew better. No child of his was ever going to feel like some pawn that only existed to improve the social standing of their parents. Even if he had to put them in _public school_. No, he wasn't going to be trotting them out for the cameras and spend his nights hoping that they made it to the pages of the gossip magazines! "And it will never be like that."

There was so much there that Victor didn't know where to begin. Luckily one thing stood him. "This baby?" He repeated and raised an eyebrow down at the man snuggled into his side. "What do you mean _this baby?!_ "

His employer didn't say anything but Victor could see the faintest traces of a smile beginning to form on his face. "Roman..?" He asked and if his voice cracked under the weight of that one word, he was not ashamed to admit it. Not right now. Again, Roman didn't say anything, but he was full-on grinning now and that was enough for Victor to piece together his answer. "Holy shit...How long have you known?"

"A few weeks," Roman answered honestly. "I tried to tell you at dinner but I have been told that I may have gone about it the wrong way."

"By who? Quinn?" Victor asked and his boyfriend quickly scrambled to break their gaze. "No."

"Not a fucking word, Vic. Desperate times call for desperate measures." 

"Can I say a word about how Harley fucking Quinn found out before me?"

"No. No, you cannot. Because I tried to tell you and you left, while she figured it out on her own." How in the flying fuck she did that Roman did not know. Maybe it was a woman thing. Or an omega thing that he had never bothered to pick up on. The point was it was not his fault that she had noticed something that Zsasz, who liked to think he was an observant man, did not. 

That was...fair. More than fair. Looking back Victor could say that some of his actions regarding Roman's attempts to talk about the issue of them having children had been pretty dismissive. Really dismissive. Okay, entirely dismissive! But in his defense it had come out of the middle of nowhere which-...should have been a sign that something bigger was going on. **_Fuck!_** "Boss," Victor said softly and took hold of one of Roman's hands. "I'm sorry." 

He pressed a kiss to the back of Roman's hand, "I'm sorry that I just shot everything down without asking you why." He gave Roman's hand another kiss and then leaned in to kiss Roman's cheek, "And I am so God damn sorry that I made you even think about your sorry excuses for parents, let alone think that I see you as being just like them." Which, was a bit biased because Victor had never met the pair, but still. He could see the pain in Roman's eyes whenever they were brought up, not to mention the influence they undoubtedly had on the formation of Roman's previous mantra regarding families being bullshit. Victor snaked his arm around Roman's waist, his hand resting against his stomach, and moved to press a couple of quick kisses to his employer's neck, "Sweetheart, Baby, Love of my Life," He practically purred. "Bossssssss."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ey, as I'm writing that I'm up to 420 hits!
> 
> Also on a more serious note that's kinda spoiler-hinty; I wonder why Roman's family & history with the elites of Gotham are being brought up. Seems suspicious...


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some Victor and Roman being cute after all the heavy stuff in the last chapter.

"What are you staring at?"

"You," Victor replied and pressed yet another quick kiss to Roman's cheek. He hesitated for a moment, something catching his attention. "Did you do something new earlier? New conditioner? You smell nice."

"No." Roman's beauty regiment was incredibly strict, perfected over the years, and he was not one to deviate from it. He had specific shampoo, conditioners, and shower gel, and he'd been using the majority of them since college. The amount of money he had spent at Bath and Body Works over the years, he could have had a majority share in the company if he had taken that money and just invested instead. And that was not including his collection of skin cream which was all imported and took at least three months in order to properly replace. If someone had switched his black cherry merlot shower gel with something else, this was the first time he was learning about it. "You must be imagining things."

"Says you." Another kiss, this time to the opposite cheek. "You want something to eat now? You haven't eaten since this morning."

"Yes!" Roman hadn't wanted to say anything but his stomach had started to growl when he'd been speaking with Harley (luckily she didn't notice or else the gang leader wouldn't have heard the end of it) and was growing increasingly in volume with every passing minute that he wasn't shoveling something into his mouth. He was getting so hungry he was actually considering heading downstairs and going to _MacDonald's!_ Ugh! What would the tabloids say if they saw him there?! Roman sat up, gently moving Victor's arms off him, and made his way into the kitchen. "I don't know what kind of vendetta this kid has against eggs but I'm going to have to tell Santigo to drop them from the breakfast menu."

Victor got up after him and took the opportunity to stretch his arms on the short walk into the other room. It had been a long couple of hours onto the couch. "I'm going to miss his omelets." He said and Roman came to a halt mid-stride, turned, and cast his boyfriend a warning look that may have been a bit more intimidating if they weren't talking about eggs. Victor couldn't help but smirk when he murmured his response, "I'll live." And, if he was really desperate for something egg-related, Victor could always wander into one of the diners down the street and grab a breakfast sandwich. While Roman took a seat at the island, Victor headed to the fridge and started to poke around to see what they had. "I'll make you something. What do you want?"

Whether it could be blamed on cravings or Roman being a precise bastard, he already had an answer formed before his boyfriend even asked him that question, "I want a sandwich. Roast beef, lettuce, a shit ton of onions-"

"Pickles?"

"The day that I want pickles is the day that I throw myself off the roof." That was the scariest part about being pregnant; the possibility that he would wake up one morning with the insatiable urge to eat one of those rotten cucumbers and developing a taste for them. The day that happened, Roman was going to end it. He didn't care if they scribbled that his cause of death was gherkin-related on his headstone or in the obituary he'd do it so, hopefully, this kid was on the exact same page with him on this one. "Onions and Cholula. Lots of Cholula. Like dose the entire thing in Cholula. I'll send Santigo to go pick up more when he does his grocery run."

Roman Sionis was a man of many strong opinions, some brilliant and reasonable and some utterly absurd, and Victor enjoyed hearing his logic behind each and every one of them. So he left the jar of pickles (that was only in the fridge for his and Santigo's consumption) on the shelf in the fridge but was sure to grab the aforementioned bottle of Cholula along with the other necessary ingredients for the desired sandwich and got to work whipping something up. "I'm not kissing you again after you eat this until you brush your teeth." What a spicy, gross kiss that would be. 

"Guess you'll have to get it out of your system now then," Roman suggested and the other man couldn't help but agree. Victor leaned across the island to comply and smiled into the kiss. When they broke apart he resumed working on the sandwich while his boyfriend watched, "You're taking this better than I thought you would."

"How did you think I would?" Victor asked though, in hindsight, that was a stupid thing for him to ask seeing what they had just been talking about on the couch. He mentally slapped himself but kept his attention on the food before him, slicing along the bread in the perfect way to remove the crusts whilst minimalizing the amount of bread lost. 

"Given everything that you had been saying..." His insistence that Roman was just going through a bit of a phase, his dismissal of all of the other man's arguments, it did make it seem like the idea of becoming a father to the alpha wasn't something he was keen on. Then again, coming home after running a long errand and getting stuck in traffic to your boyfriend having made your favorite meal and talking about wanting a baby when it had never been brought up before, except to laugh and rave about how the idea of a nuclear family was bullshit, had to have been a surreal experience. All they could do was hope that they could laugh about it in a couple of years. "Or was that because of my abruptness?"

"Sometimes you need to work on your explanations," Victor explained. Bluntness wasn't always the enemy. Sometimes Roman needed to set the formalities aside and just be as straight forward as possible but, then again, it wouldn't be like Roman. "But life would be a lot less dramatic if you did. And a lot more boring." He finished up with the sandwich and took a second to marvel at his creation. It may not have been a po-boy but it would be more than enough to satisfy any late-night hunger!

"Hey-" Before Roman could finish that thought Victor was reaching into one of the cupboards for a bag of ruffles brand potato chips. He opened the bag and poured a couple onto the side before adding a clip to seal the bag and placing it back where it belonged. Roman hummed in approval, "I didn't even have to ask. You know me so well."

Victor plucked a single chip off the plate before sliding it across the island to the other man and popped it into his mouth, "I like to think so." They had known each other for fifteen years, if Victor didn't know his boyfriend by now he had been doing a shitty job during his time under Roman's employ. He knew a lot of things about Roman that the rest of Gotham didn't, stuff like how Roman had a tattoo on his inner thigh that he got during spring break '03, how he was a sleep-cuddler and on nights where he went to bed before his boyfriend, Victor would enter the bedroom to find Roman spooning with one of their pillows, and how he always cried when they watched Titanic. Victor knew things. Things that would have the other man holding up in the apartment for the next three years if they ever got out. "So what happens now? What do we need to do next?"

"Well, I have a doctor's appointment next week." One of the first things Roman had done after picking himself up off the bathroom floor was to get into contact with a doctor and make the arrangements, followed shortly by scanning the internet for any blogs or journals that could be of use until he worked up the nerve to actually purchase a book on the subject. Which, again looking back, getting to the appointment was going to have been a challenge to deal with when Victor was under the impression that he was going to be going into heat and therefore should not be going out anywhere. "They recommend having one every month until the second trimester, then bumping it up to every few weeks. Though, apparently, because I am of a certain age it is also recommended that I have more frequent appointments than others." 

"You're thirty-six."

"Yeah, and apparently thirty-five is the age where you become old to be having a baby." 

"That's bullshit. And I'm not just saying that because I'm older than you."

Roman snorted a laugh before finally taking a big, delicious bite out of his sandwich, "Old man."

"Brat." Victor retorted affectionately and, despite his prior warning stating that he would be doing nothing of the sort until some toothpaste was involved, gave Roman another kiss, this time to the omega's forehead. "What else?"

"There isn't really much to do right now. See a doctor every so often, stay away from the heavy stuff, keep an eye out for anything strange." If they wanted to they could potentially start looking around for items for the baby, poke about on Harrod's website and see what they had available for ship, but there wasn't much to do right now as far as he was aware other than not drink, not do drugs, and eat healthily. Though, there was one thing weighing against the back of his mind..."Actually, there is something that you could do for me."

"What's that Boss?"

"Keep an eye on the doctors for me, would you?" It sounded like he was being paranoid, Roman knew that, but he couldn't give less of a shit. This was important. There were a lot of doctors in this city who would have lost their licenses if they attempted to practice literally anywhere else in the world, hence their occupying the most dangerous city in the world, running the risk of getting caught in whatever scheme Scarecrow or Dr. Freeze was operating that week, and being completely overworked for salaries that would have made teachers laugh. "Don't trust 'em. Never did."

"You want me to actually live up to my job description. I can do that." If they weren't both grown adult men and therefore mature, Victor may have considered changing his ringtone for the occasion (though he got the sneaking suspicion that if they were together, his phone went off, and Roman heard Whitney Houston's _I Will Always Love You_ blaring out of his phone he wouldn't find it funny). "...You think we're going to have any problems?"

Well, if he phrased it like that, problems could be anything. They could get caught in another day-time robbery perpetrated by some new wannabe, they could get a parking ticket, they could get picked up by the Batman. Maybe they'd get there and be ambushed by the Huntress or one of their other rivals, or the paparazzi desperate for some puff piece to fill out the gossip section of whatever publication was funding their strolls in downtown Gotham would catch them off guard. Hell, maybe the Earth would be invaded by aliens or some ancient meta-human, they didn't know. Anything could happen. That was one of the shittier things about living in a major city like Gotham. Anything and everything can happen. "You never know." Was all Roman could say on the matter, "Bring one of your knives. Just in case." 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was a little late getting this chapter out but only because it's a bit longer but we get to find some additional stuff out about Roman and Victor and there's even a little bit of plot towards the end, so enjoy!

There was a clinic over on 53rd and Westmore above a pharmacy that had a good reputation among the citizens of Gotham for having quick genuinely decent staff and quick waiting times no matter the time of day. Despite all of that the young man currently sitting in the corner of the waiting room drumming his foot along on the floor while he waited for his name to be called had been there for nearly an hour and was growing impatient. He hadn't come in for anything extensive, just a quick STD screening after receiving a couple of admittedly disturbing messages from a one night stand but the woman working the reception desk refused to push back any of the previously scheduled appointments. Something about a protocol, the man couldn't care less. The door leading the stairwell opened and two more men entered holding hands; the first was older with hair that was obviously bleached and was leading the other along, while his partner was a bit younger and much better dressed. Come to think of it the second one was actually pretty cute. The man smirked and gave him a once-over. Definitely cute, with a hot ass and legs that would look good wrapped around his waist. His gaze must have lingered for too long though because the first man stopped walking and fired him a look that could have been capable of reducing an entire city to waste. "What are you looking at?" He asked but his words were not a question, they were a demand, and the young man swore he felt his heart stop for a moment. 

It really was a curse being so damn beautiful sometimes. Roman had long since gotten used to the stares but he still got a bit of a thrill whenever he saw Victor so ready to defend. He chuckled and patted Zsasz's shoulder, "Down boy." As much as he enjoyed watching Zsasz work they hadn't come here for a fight and would certainly attract a bunch of unwanted attention. Victor nodded and they finished the short trip to the receptionist's desk. "I have an appointment with Dr. Bennet at one under the name Roman Sionis." 

The woman working the desk looked young, either fresh out of college or currently paying her way through it if he had to guess, but she seemed sweet enough. "Just a moment Sir." She said and flipped through the office's appointment book to verify the information and sign him in. Sure enough, there was his name scribbled in Bennet's one o'clock space. "Have a seat and Dr. Bennet will be with you in a moment." 

"Thank you," Roman replied and let Victor guide him away and over to some empty seats closer to the stairs. It did not go unnoticed that these seats were the farthest away from the only other person currently occupying the waiting room by the gang leader. Zsasz really wasn't as subtle as he thought he was. Lucky he was pretty. Speaking of which the alpha shifted uncomfortably next to him, 

"I hate clinics. The sterilized scent gets to me."

"I know." Roman wasn't fond of it either. Too much like bleach and sometimes it was so heavy that it felt like his nostrils were burning. "It's better than the alternative, at least." Painful but necessary, he supposed. He'd rather have his nose burn from over sterilization than have the place be filthy and crawling with germs. 

That was reasonable but didn't do much to take the edge off. Victor shifted uncomfortably, gaze drifting back to the guy in the corner near the window who seemed to have gotten the lesson and was making himself look busy by flipping through some motorcycle magazine, before landing back on the man sitting next to him. "How are you feeling?" He asked. 

"Fine." Roman remarked and gave Victor's hand a gentle squeeze. "Are you going to ask me that every two hours for the next eight months?" 

"I am." Victor answered squeezing back. "And if you think I'm going to stop checking in eight months you're in for a surprise." 

* * *

The other guy was still waiting when Roman's name was called and he and Victor were brought into one of the examination rooms to wait for the doctor. He had been sure to message his normal physician to forward his information to Dr. Bennet after he recommended her but they were still given the quick run around by one of the nurses (checking blood pressure, getting his height and weight, etc) before the actual doctor appeared with his charts tucked under her arm. She took a seat across from them and after quickly exchanging the usual pleasantries they went straight to work, "So right now we're going to have to discuss your medical history. I already have your documents faxed over by your Dr. Simpson but I would like to confirm everything with you. So I'm going to read some things off and I just want you to say whether it's correct or incorrect, alright?" It sounded easy enough. "Your full name is Roman Beauvais Sionis, born July 17th 1984, age thirty-six?"

"That is correct." Roman confirmed with a nod. He heard Victor mumble something softly under his breath about the other man being such a Leo and elbowed him into silence. Victor could sign-shame him later. 

"Your parents had you vaccinated when you were a child?"

"Yes." If Roman had anything positive to say in regards to his parents it was that they weren't that fucking stupid that they wouldn't get him his shots. Then again maybe it wasn't so much a matter of them caring for a minuscule minute but a matter of him being born at the right time when a former playboy bunny with no medical training was not spouting nonsense about vaccines causing autism. The more he thought about, the clearer it became to him that if the anti-vax movement had existed in the 1980s, his mother would have surely been ensnared in it. He shivered at the thought, "I was fully vaccinated."

"No known allergies, no major surgeries?"

"Not unless you consider getting my wisdom teeth removed when I was twenty major surgery."

"It says here that you have some history with mental illnesses." Roman couldn'd help but scoff. That was a rather blunt way of putting it. "Your last psychiatric evaluation diagnoses you as having abandonment issues and bipolar disorder. Are you currently taking any medications or seeking treatment for these conditions?"

"No. I have never been prescribed anything for either." So maybe he stretched the truth a little there. He may have been prescribed something for his conditions in the past but it wasn't as if he had ever gotten them filled or actually taken them. He wasn't good with remembering to take pills, sue him! Not to mention the fact that the psych exam the doctor was talking about was nothing more than a fucking joke. He was getting along just fine without the medication and if he really needed them, Dr. Simpson could be the one to tell him that. 

Dr. Bennet scribbled something down on his chart and kept going, "I would recommend you speak with your regular physician about getting something to assist you with your bipolar disorder. However, I do not recommend that you take any medication for the duration of your pregnancy as it can cause birth defects." As if he didn't already know that. 

"Kay." Which, in this instance, was code for _no way in hell_ but the good doctor didn't need to worry about that. 

"How old were you when you presented as an omega?"

"Fourteen." Fourteen years old and home for the summer. He was just grateful that it had happened somewhere where he could hole himself up for the duration and ride it out without anyone snooping around. If he had been at school there was a significant chance that Bruce or Harvey would have stumbled upon him in that condition and there was no telling what would have happened then. 

"Your heats come every four months?"

"Yes. Without fail." Well, except for right now. 

"Are you on any suppressants or blockers?"

"I took them when I was in high school but have been off of them for at least ten years." And thank God for that. Taking those fucking things every morning always made him feel nauseous and like he was bordering on a migraine until they had time to settle. 

"Have you been pregnant before? Including any losses?"

Victor shifted awkwardly beside him and Roman suppressed the urge to laugh at the man's possessiveness, "No."

"Alright," Bennet replied and scribbled something else down on his chart. "So this question is for both of you. Are there any conditions in your families' respective medical history that I should make a note of now. Things like heart disease, cancer, dementia, etc...?"

Victor had to think about it for a second but nothing sprung to mind. Nothing that could complicate things during pregnancy. "My grandfather died of lung cancer in '95 but I don't think that was genetic, more the result of a five pack a day habit." The cancer gene was something that could be hereditary, right? This was the kind of the thing Dr. Bennet was looking for? She started to scribble something down after he said that so Victor could only assume he was on the right page. 

Roman's answer to that question was far less complicated, unfortunately. "My family never talked about our medical history. I wouldn't know." According to the Sionis patriarch and matriarch, it was too dreary a topic to discuss, not suitable for polite conversation despite mother, father, and son being the only ones speaking or even the room at the time. Thinking back to the raccoon incident and Roman couldn't say that he was surprised. "I do have migraines though, that I take medication for, but I stopped after I figured out about the baby."

"That's fine. Standard practice is to do a genetic screening anyway." Dr. Bennet assured him. Given how common it was for the people of Gotham to be out of contact with family members, neither of the men's answers surprised her. Even if they weren't living in a city full of violent sociopaths, family health history was a difficult topic to bring up. "We're going to do the screening, a blood test, a urine test, an STD test, and check your blood sugar levels."

"Is that all?" Victor asked sarcastically. He had known going into this appointment that they were going to be here for a while, that the doctor was going to be a bit excessive (which, let the record show, he was all for. Whatever they needed to do to make sure that Roman and the baby were both okay), but the bodyguard had been under the impression that this would just be a matter of blood work and answering questions. If his boyfriend was shipping off to war, he wouldn't get a more thorough set of examinations!

"Well, that, and then we can give you a countdown to an approximate due date." All it would take was sitting through a couple of tests and then they could get right to the fun part. "Let you see an ultrasound." 

"An ultrasound?" Roman repeated. "You can do that this early?"

"It's the easiest way to predict the due date," Bennet explained. "You're not going to see a fully developed baby on the screen but there will be something there, and then suddenly this is going to seem a lot more real."

* * *

Seeing as Roman had never met a doctor that he could completely trust sitting still while he was repeatedly poked with needles and swabbed was an incredibly uncomfortable experience. Midway through Dr. Bennet's attempt to draw blood from his arm he went reaching for Victor's hand again and didn't let go until Bennet gave them the all-clear and went reaching for her charts again. "It's going to take some time to get the results of your tests back but we'll send you them as soon as we get them. I also think it would beneficial at that time to schedule a follow-up appointment just to go over anything that comes up." 

"Whatever you say," Roman replied. And whatever got her to stop sticking things in him. 

Bennet turned to set her charts aside on the nearby counter space then wheeled her chair back over to the couple. "So," She asked. "You guys want to see the baby now?"

Victor answered for both of them, quickly and simply, "Yes!" 

"Alright," Dr. Bennet stated. "I'm going to need you to roll up your shirt please Roman, and we'll get started." 

As reluctant as he was to let go of Victor's hand (Roman had only ever seen ultrasounds performed on tv and television had a habit of getting some of the details crossed so he had only the faintest understanding of what it entailed), he had to in order to follow the doctor's orders. So he let go, quickly pushed the fabric of his shirt up so his stomach was exposed, and grabbed hold of Victor's hand again. Dr. Bennet pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and grabbed a white plastic tube from one of the counter drawers, popped the cap, and squirted a bit of gel onto his stomach. 

"Ah!" Roman shivered and gave Victor's hand a firm squeeze. 

"Cold?" His boyfriend asked with a bit of a smile. He'd have to get Victor for that later. 

"Yeah..." It felt like she had set a couple of ice cubes down directly onto his abdomen. "Give me a heads up next time, would you Doc?"

Dr. Bennet massaged some of the gel down in gentle circles before answering, "I can do that." Next time anyway. Once she was satisfied with her handiwork, Bennet rolled over to the corner of the room and pulled a complicated machine out from the wall. Neither man needed to ask what it was. Ultrasound machines looked the exact same as they did in real life as they did in the movies. Bennet flipped a switch so the screen lit up, took hold of an attached wand, and pressed against Roman's stomach. The image on the screen changed to one that flickered.

"That's it?" Roman asked. It looked like static; like someone had flicked an old television set between channels. He squinted and tried to make something out; some sort of shape or blob that stood out against the shaking lines. "Where is it?"

"There," Victor answered him and reached across to point to a tiny outline in the middle of the static. He spoke softly, his eyes locked on that tiny blip. The bodyguard traced the outline of it with his index finger and he could feel his eyes beginning to water. Victor blinked it back. He was not going to cry in the middle of a doctor's appointment; he was stronger than that. He could make it through this without shedding a tear...no he couldn't. Victor could feel a stray one spill away. "It's so little." 

"It's going to get bigger." Roman pointed out. Much bigger. But Victor was right. As of that moment, it was so small, practically a dot on the screen, but it was real. It was really there and growing stronger with each passing moment. 

"That's right and it has plenty of time to get bigger." Dr. Bennet piped up. "The baby is developing nicely and from the looks of it, I project that the baby will be born around late October, early November, but from what I'm seeing here I would say to set October 28th as a more exact date."

"October?" Victor repeated. Now, why did that sound off to him? 

"Are you sure that's right?" Roman asked. If it had happened the night in the shower back in late February then October would be too early. "I did the math and I was expecting it to be late November early December." 

"I'm sorry but I stand by my numbers. You're about nine weeks pregnant meaning that you must have conceived sometime in early February." 

"Nine weeks?!" But that couldn't be right! Because that would mean he was already pregnant when he and Victor got busy in the shower so when did they-... _Oh_. "Oh God, I thought it was only six..."

"It happens sometimes," Bennet replied with a shrug. Sometimes it took a little while for the symptoms associated with pregnancy to present themselves, or a person lost track of their heats, and they just got the dates a little mixed up. "The important thing is that you and the baby are healthy. Now, I'm going to go hand the documents over to my nurse and I'll get you a picture of the scan." She opened one of the drawers in a cabinet lining the far wall and pulled out a light blue towel which she promptly handed over to the man. "You can use this to clean up. Just set it on the counter when you're done."

"Thank you, Doctor." Roman waited until Bennet was out of the room before turning to Victor, sitting there rubbing the back of his neck, and offering him a wild grin, "February, Victor. The doctor said that we conceived in February, not March as I thought. Tell me, what's in early February Victor?" He teased. 

"I'm glad you're getting a kick out of this." The alpha replied, "How are we supposed to explain it to them when they figure it out?"

"How would they figure it out?" Conception didn't seem like the type of thing that would easily come up in casual conversation with a small child and by the time the kid became a teenager the last thing they'd want to think about was their parents having sex. 

"You mean to tell me you never counted back from your birthday to see when you were conceived?" Victor asked. 

"What the fuck is wrong with you? No!" As it would turn out even as a man in his thirties Roman was still repulsed by the idea. Fingers crossed his child agreed with him. 

"Kids do that! Do you know why so many people have birthdays in September? Christmas sex. Or New Year's sex." It sounded stupid when he said it out loud like that but the second kids figured out how exactly they came to be on this earth, they grew curious, they did the math, they counted back nine months from when they were born to get a rough of idea of when they first (technically) came into existence. At least that was what he and his classmates did during their first sex-ed class. "How are we going to explain to them that they were birthday sex?"

"You're an idiot." 

* * *

After spending over an hour tending to her 1:00 patient, Dr. Bennet finally stepped out from the room she'd guided them into and made her way down the hall to the reception area where her head nurse sat, finally returned from her extended lunch break, occupying her time by filling out a crossword while she waited for someone to come in and register. "Hey, Deborah, you mind filing these for me?" 

"No problem." The middle-aged nurse replied, set the crossword she had been working on aside, and reached out to take the file from the doctor. She rolled her chair along behind the back of the reception desk and over to the file cabinets. She flipped the file over to see what the name was so it could be placed in the correct drawer and nearly dropped it. There, scribbled in black sharpie, was a name she never expected to see here of all places. _"Sionis._ As in Janus Corp?" 

"I didn't ask." Dr. Bennet replied, not looking up from the charts for her 2:30 appointment. "I think he owns some club downtown or something like that." What her patient did for a living was none of her concern, all that mattered was that he and the baby were healthy. 

"The Black Mask Club?" Deborah asked but the doctor just waved her off. She waited until the doctor left, eyes still glued to her charts, and quickly flipped open the file to begin searching through it. There, clear as day, was the name Roman B. Sionis. It had been a long time since Deborah heard that name. She looked around, did a quick scan of the office to make sure that nobody was watching, slipped her cellphone from her coat pocket and took a photo. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for the record, I have no problems against Leos. Zsasz is just being an ass. And, in case you're wondering, for the sake of this story I'm saying he's an Aquarius.


	7. Chapter 7

In the mornings, hours before the Black Mask Club was set to open, it was standard protocol for Roman to venture downstairs and complete a check of the space, just to make sure that nothing had been damaged or dirtied the night before and had gone overlooked by their cleaning staff. However, since morning sickness was finally beginning to rear it's ugly head, Victor had taken the liberty of taking over his boyfriend's duties in regards to club maintenance. They both agreed that it was important for things to appear business as usual to the rest of the city right now. Victor was in the middle of adjusting one of the statues when he heard the doors to the club open and close behind him. He didn't bother to turn around, "Club's closed. If you're looking for a drink come back in a couple of hours-"

"It's me." A familiar voice responded and Victor nearly knocked the damn statute over in his haste to spin around and come face to face with the interloper; Harley Quinn leaning against the wall with a thick magazine tucked under one arm. She waved her fingers at him, "Heya Zsaszy! How are you doing today?"

"What do you want Quinn?" From what Roman had told him it sounded like the only reason she'd bothered poking her heard around The Black Mask Club had been to get free drinks and it was clearly wasn't business hours. No, this had to be something else and he really wasn't in the mood to deal with her clown-bullshit this early in the damn morning! 

"Well, I was out gettin' myself some breakfast when something caught my eye. Thought since my organization has been trying to establish friendly terms with your organization I would make the little trip down to show you boys." Harley explained and produced the magazine out from underneath her arm. Victor recognized it immediately. _Good Morning Gotham_ , a cheesy little tabloid that may have resembled a decent publication at one time but was now nothing more than gossip, rumors, and the occasional lewd photo of some socialite. Back in the day, before Roman had made the transition from troubled heir to gang leader and was just looking for another way to piss off daddy, stories about him and some less than flattering pictures had graced their pages but the last time Roman had been mentioned had been back in '08. Why the fuck Harley thought Victor would care about whatever bullshit rumor they were fuelling now, he had no idea. 

"Could have just told me what it is." Victor retorted and snatched the magazine out of Harley's hands. It didn't take him long to realize what she was talking about. It was scrawled across the bottom in thick black letters. "What the fuck!?"

"Figured you'd want to see it." Harley said. She was right. Better to find out now at home than when they were out in public with no escape plans. There, in between two teasers promising an interview with Bruce Wayne about his current dating life and some of Veronica Vreeland's leaked nudes was a pregnancy announcement. _Roman Sionis' pregnancy announcement!_

"Fuck!" Victor couldn't help but scream. "I gotta go tell Roman-"

"Hang on." Harley interrupted him and grabbed hold of Victor's arm. "Why can't I tell Roman? I came all the way over." 

"What are we in a fucking competition?" 

The doors to the lift dinged open and a still pajama-clad Roman came stumbling out, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Zsasz, what are you yelling at?" He asked. He had been getting ready to take a shower when he heard the man shouting downstairs and thought it best to put his shower plans on hold until he could see what was going on. His gaze landed on the woman currently holding his boyfriend's arm. "Oh. That explains it. Hello Harley." 

"Mornin' Romy!" The clown let go of Victor in order to give Roman an overenthusiastic wave. "You know, they say that when you're expectin' you get this natural glow and I have to say you definitely have it. Look at ya!" 

"Harley, cut the bullshit. What are you here for?"

Harley snatched the magazine from Victor and handed it over for him to see for himself. "I saw this when I was gettin' breakfast with Cass. Thought you should know."

Roman was easily able to find his name on the cover. "Oh fuck." He mumbled and flipped to the page that the cover cited as having the story and, sure enough, there was a short and punchy article stating that he was pregnant, delving into his previous appearances in Good Morning Gotham, coupled with a few candids from those days including an old swimsuit picture that Roman really wished could have stayed buried. "FUCK! How could they know?! H-how did they find out?!" 

"Maybe someone got to the doctor?" Victor suggested. She, and Dr. Simpson, were the only people outside of the room currently who had any knowledge about the pregnancy. It had to have come from her! "Paid her off?" 

"No." Roman insisted, his voice beginning to waver. "Simpson is the one doctor I actually trust in this fucking city, if he says Bennet is on the up and up, I-I-I gotta believe him."

"Dr. Jill Bennet over on 53rd and Westmore?" Harley asked and Roman could only nod in response. "Half of Gotham's underworld is on her patient list she wouldn't rat. She has this one nurse though who's a super bitch. Wouldn't put it past her."

"Fuck..." Roman mumbled and ran his hands through his hair. "Oh fuck..."

"Harley, this one nurse, you know who she is?" Victor asked. "We could go pick her up Boss. Interrogate her. Find out why she did this and, if she didn't, figure out who did."

"I can't go out right now, Victor." The paparazzi would be waiting. Years of keeping a low profile gone to Hell. The media was like sharks; all it would take was one drop of blood and then there'd be a feeding frenzy. It was only a matter of time..."Not right now."

"I can go with him." Harley offered. "Cass is doing our normal runs in the East End so I'm free for the day."

"Go." Roman told them, "Zsasz go with her. Find out who leaked the information but don't kill them. Not yet." That was the only upside to being the subject of gossip-news; the second a juicer story came along he'd be old news. All it took was one stupid heiress sharing their nudes, one local celebrity caught cheating on their partner, some kid finding out that their dad was really the mayor or the DA or the head of some major company with local offices and anything regarding Roman's pregnancy would be old news. And then he would be free to move about as he pleased. "I want to watch." 

* * *

They ended up taking the Rolls-Royce. Victor was tempted to remind Roman of what happened the last time Harley had gone for a ride in his car but he'd only just managed to calm the omega down and didn't want to leave him alone in the middle of a mood swing so he kept quiet and bit his tongue throughout the majority of the drive, savoring the silence. Of course, Harley had to ruin it. They had roughly five minutes left to go when she asked, "Are you always this silent on your way to do a job?"

"Yes," Victor answered and if either of them were still on speaking terms with that little bitch Dinah, she could have vouched for him. He preferred to zone out on his way to the job, focus on how he was going to carry things out, gush over the thrill that came whenever he was peeling off a face. "You do understand that if it weren't for Roman, I would have killed you by now?"

"Yep," Harley replied. "You're not a hard man to read, Mista Zsasz."

"Oh really?" Victor asked. "You gonna diagnose me, Dr. Quinn, like you did Roman?"

"No," said Harley. "But I bet you there's things that I know about you that even your boss doesn't."

"Like what?"

"Lots of things." Said Harley. "Rich families like the Sionises never went to Gotham High but I did. Granted it was like a decade after you, but I saw the pictures, read the yearbooks, saw the names scribbled on trophies stashed away in the school display case." Even after everything he'd done staff at Gotham High hadn't gone out of their way to try and purge the memories of their fallen former students from their halls. There was a quiz-bowl trophy in one of the displays that proudly bore the name Edward Nygma for crying out loud! Maybe it was a way of therapy; of remembering the phantoms of the kids who came before the monsters. "Does Roman know about any of that?"

Victor winced and tightened his grip on the steering wheel, "That was a long time ago." He finally said. "I'm not like that anymore."

"I know," Harley replied. "No one's the person they were in High School, sweetheart." God knows she wasn't. Sometimes she wondered what her old teachers would say if they could see the shy, nerdy girl who always sat in the front row and asked too many questions now. Maybe they'd just be impressed that she'd gotten her Ph.D and overlook the clown relationship, the crime spree, and her downward spiral into madness. "Hey, Romy was tellin' me about his no-egg diet when I was talkin' to him the other night in the club. How's that goin' for ya?"

"I'm managing." Managing but missing the tang of hot sauce over Santigo's eggs. His favorite breakfast food. But it was better than triggering Roman's morning sickness and leaving him miserable for the rest of the day. 

"Tell ya what, after we finish up with the nurse I'll show ya this little hidden gem that I know about. They make the best egg sandwich in the city. My treat." Harley offered. "I'll even spring for some breath mints so Romy will never know." 

"You're very lucky that Roman doesn't want you dead right now," Victor told her but the edge to his voice was gone, the threat, for once, was empty. Oh well. He could always kill her after he got his egg sandwich. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman gets a visit from an old friend while Victor and Harley are away...

Rather than go back up and lounge around the apartment while he waited for Victor and Harley to return, Roman opted instead to pace around the club. Victor's maintenance check had been interrupted so he tried to distract himself by ensuring that everything was up to standard for tonight. Oh...tonight. He usually liked to pop around the place, speak with some of his regulars, just make sure that everybody was having such a nice time. But, now, that wouldn't be the case. The regulars he usually hung around and spoke with would no doubt bring it up, there was a good chance that more tabloid writers would be stopping by just to get a picture of him, there was no way he'd be able to maneuver around and follow out his routine the way he liked it! Roman ended up collapsing in one of the booths and just put his head in his hands. Part of him was regretting his decision to not let Victor just kill the bitch who spoiled things and be done with it. He heard the club doors open behind him and Roman lifted his head back up, "You're back early." He said. Given that the clinic was a couple of blocks over he had been expecting it to take an hour at the very least. "I would have thought that you-..."

"Hello, Roman." A familiar but (obviously) not Victor or Harley's voice said. Roman felt his jaw drop but he didn't move; he didn't have to. The figure came around and slid across from him into the booth. "It's been a long time."

"Bruce," Roman said softly. "What are you doing here?"

The other man was right, it had been a long time since they last met-up face to face, and there was a good reason for that. A reason that Roman preferred not to think about. The last time he and Gotham's golden boy Bruce Wayne got together it had not been a pleasant experience for anyone. Not much had seemingly changed for Bruce during that time; he looked the exact same albeit with a couple of bags under his eyes from what Roman could only assume was the result of his party-all-night lifestyle. "Have you seen _Good Morning Gotham_ today?" Bruce asked. "They have an article about you in it. Some old pictures too. From back in the day."

"It was hard to miss." Roman retorted. His name was on the cover after all. 

"Well, I wanted to let you know that I ordered a retraction." Noticing visible confusion spreading across Roman's face, Bruce explained himself. "I bought the magazine a couple of weeks back for nostalgia's sake. You, me, and Harvey used to end up in those pages quite a bit." Back in the late nineties, early two thousands before the shit hit the fan and the days of their partying together came to an abrupt end. While the majority of the pictures featured in the article had just been some solo ones of Roman, they had included a shot of him leaving The Half Moon Club with his arms around Bruce and Harvey's shoulders. The three of them were laughing at some joke lost to the ages in a mess of whiskey and poor decisions. Somewhere, in one of the old photo albums, Roman had collected before things went digital, there was a copy of that exact same image he'd clipped the day that issue of _Good Morning Gotham_ printed. 

"How is Harvey doing these days?" He asked as if he hadn't heard updates on his old friend through the grapevine. The things people talked to him about when they were drunk and didn't think he was paying attention...

"There's a rumor floating about that he's going to become Gotham's youngest district attorney," Bruce replied with his signature easy-going grin. A grin that had once been enough to pull Roman out of whatever mood he was trapped in and make him feel relaxed, easy-going himself, and ready to party until dawn. "Hard to believe given the shit we got up to the academy. Remember how many times he ended up passed out drunk in your dorm room?"

"I seem to remember the both of you ending up passed out drunk in my dorm room, thank you very much." One of the downsides to attending school in a seemingly ancient academy, Roman's room was the only one in their circle of friends whose door actually locked. Convenient as all Hell when you wanted to spend the night drinking and not risk being woken up and ratted out by cleaning staff. "I also remember you and Harvey wrestling on my floor to figure out who got to sleep it off in the bathtub. And now one of you is going to be the district attorney and the other is CEO of Wayne enterprises." Wasn't life funny? If Roman had anything left in his stomach from this morning, he was sure he would have puked. 

"And you're running the most successful night club in Gotham." Bruce was quick to remind him, still grinning from ear to ear. "I hear that Oswald Cobblepot is green with envy."

"Cobblepot is an old bastard living in the 1920s. I just brought the nightclub scene into the modern era." Seriously? Who wanted to listen to big band music and dress in formal wear when they went out for a drink? Senior citizens and weirdos, that was who! But somehow Cobblepot was still able to turn a profit so maybe he knew something about the business world that Roman didn't. He sighed. As happy as he appeared to be sitting there and discussing the past, Roman knew exactly why Bruce had bothered coming all this way to his little club in the middle of the day. "I know you want to ask about it Bruce, so just get it over with."

Bruce sighed and straightened himself up, "It's true then?" He asked and Roman just nodded in response. "Congratulations." He said and as much as Roman had been preparing himself for the opposite, it sounded genuine. Fucking Bruce, heart bigger than his brain sometimes. They hadn't been able to talk in how long and he was still happy that his childhood friend was having a baby...

"Thank you." Roman replied. "And, thanks for the retraction. I don't know how many people know by now but-"

"There's no way they could know." Bruce cut him off. " _Good Morning Gotham_ is strictly circulated in the city. There's no way they could hear anything about it that quickly."

"Are they still Los Angeles?" Roman asked. "Do you know if they're still there?"

"The last time I heard from either of them was two years ago and they were still in LA then," Bruce replied. It wasn't like he'd gone out of his way to remain in contact with them but they still had his number and he kept forgetting to get it changed and the update out to the people he wanted to remain in communication with. Seeing as they hadn't tried to get in touch with him ever since it hadn't struck him as something that he needed to move to the top of his to-do pile. Not that it offered much Roman much comfort. The omega wrapped his arms around himself and shrunk back against the back of the booth. "Look, Roman, if you wanted we could go meet with Harvey and have him draw something up. We both know how they are and if he has to, you know that Harvey will go to court for you. There are ways we can-"

"I can't deal with that again Bruce." Roman interrupted. "Not right now." In other words, not with the baby. He had to keep his child safe, Roman could worry about himself later. For the first time in his life, his life was not at the top of his priorities list. Someone else's was. 

Bruce seemed to get the hint and nodded, "Okay." He stated but from his tone, Roman knew that he wasn't just going to drop it. That was something about Bruce that, when they had been close, Roman both admired and was annoyed by; his inability to let sleeping dogs lay. Bruce was planning something but whatever it was Roman was going to have to deal with it later. In the meantime, Bruce decided to switch to something lighter. "So what's the guy like? Want to tell me about him?"

"He didn't go to school with us. He went to Gotham High."

"You're dating someone who went to public school? Gasp!"

Bruce managed to get a laugh out of him with that one and Roman continued, "He's a bit older too, four years, but he's in really good shape. Like, he's gorgeous, rugged...He has these super strong arms and the most beautiful brown eyes," He wouldn't admit out loud but Victor's eyes were Roman's favorite part of him. They were so dark and soulful, yet sweet at the same time. They were perfect and the possibility of their child having Victor's eyes thrilled him to no end. "Not to mention he's hung like a fucking horse!"

"Roman!" Bruce exclaimed and reached across to clap him on the shoulder. "You always had a type!"

"So he's...he's really good looking but that's not just it." Roman didn't know why his voice had started to shake or why he felt it was important to add these details to his description of Zsasz but he had to say them and once he started speaking, he couldn't stop. "He's devoted. Anytime I need him to do something, he's already on it. He's funny too but that kind of funny where he isn't trying too hard." Victor never tried to be funny but he knew how to make Roman laugh. Goofy, he supposed, was the best word to describe Victor's sense of humor. "And he knows how to make me calm down, how to make me relax when my mood starts to swing." How to bring him out of his anger, how to direct it elsewhere; how to cheer him up whenever he was feeling his lowest. It was like Victor had a different routine on how to ground him whenever his employer was flying off the handle. "He's my best friend."

"That's sweet," Bruce said with a smile. "Good for you man." When they'd been hanging out, Roman had a hard time finding someone who he could spend more than a week with when it came to dating so to hear he'd found somebody who clearly mattered so much to him was heartwarming. "How'd he react to the news about the baby?"

"He didn't believe me, at first, but that may have been because I wasn't the most straight forward about it. But since he found out I wasn't kidding he's been excited! Even more protective than usual. I even saw him crying when we went and had the first ultrasound." 

"I'm happy for you, man."

"What about you?" Roman asked, a knowing smirk forming on his lips. "I may have kept myself out of the gossip pages as of late but you certainly haven't."

"What can I say? I never met the right person." 

"Bruce, we both know that's a load of bullshit. In all the time that I've known you, you've been head over heels for one person. Ever since we were five and he pushed that bully off the top of the slide at school because he was picking on you." 

"Yeah, well, I don't think it'll ever happen and it's been too long now. I'd be putting decades of a friendship on the line."

"Bruce, no offense but you're an idiot." 

* * *

Dr. Bennet was wrapping up with one of her less notable patients (meaning someone who had never been arrested, never been suspected of any criminal involvement, and had never even gotten a parking ticket!) when she got a page from one of her nurses that her presence was being requested in the waiting room and that she needed to come out immediately. She quickly apologized to her current patient and hurried out into the hall to see what was going on. She rounded a corner, practically sprinted to the door, flung the door open, and stepped out into the waiting room where two people were waiting for her. Dr. Bennet didn't need to worry about introductions; the man, Victor Zsasz, had been in to see her a couple of days ago with his boyfriend for an appointment, and Harley Quinn had a look that was easily identifiable. "Morning Dr. Ben!" Harley exclaimed with an overenthusiastic wave. "You gotta second?"

"Hello Mr. Zsasz, Miss Quinn..." Dr. Bennet stated and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "What can I do for you?"

"All you need to do is give us a name," Victor explained and held a copy of some thick gossip magazine up for the doctor to see. "Who told the press?"

"Oh no." Bennet lost more than her fair share of help to matters such as this. It happened when the majority of your patients were gangsters looking for a bit of discretion. For many, the temptation of reward money offered by the press, by fellow crime lords, was too strong to resist. "Look, I didn't think much of it at first but my head nurse didn't show up for her shift this morning. I figured she was just sick or something and forgot to call in." 

"She got a name?" Harley asked. 

"Deborah Cunningham. We haven't had any problems with her before though. Well, problems relating to patients. Some of our other staff members have complained about her being less than accomodating to work with but-"

"Well, we'll just have to go talk to Deborah and find out what happened for ourselves." So they couldn't hang the bitch upside down and peel off her face _just_ yet. There were still a couple of different ways that they could get the information they needed from her while still making her hurt. By the end of it, she was going to be wishing that Roman had just ordered Victor to take her face off! "Thanks for the help doc. Come on Quinn, let's go see where we can find this nurse."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that in the comics Roman was only friends with Bruce and (by extension of that Harvey) because of his parents and that he actually resents Bruce for buying out Janus corp when he ran it into the ground but I decided to do something different with it for a couple of reasons: 1) Roman is stated to not be involved with Janus Corp anymore in the movie (and this has some ramifications on the plot here. Kinda obvious and going to be picking up a bit soon 2) It's an excuse to have Bruce, Harvey, and Roman be a brat (bat) pack when they were teens and 3) Roman needs friends he watch movies with besides Harley.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley and Victor (and Sal) bond over a damn good egg sandwich while Roman says goodbye to Bruce.

"Hey Sal! Fire up the grill! You know what I'm here for!" A loud voice blurted out, almost covering the sound of the little bell that dinged above the door when the person it belonged to stepped inside the store. 

"Harley!" Sal exclaimed with a big old grin. He was beginning to wonder when his favorite customer was going to be stopping in for yet another one of her favorite treats. "One egg sandwich coming right up!" Harley moved further into the store so she wasn't in the middle of the door and Sal noticed for the first time that she wasn't alone but it wasn't the usual kid that had been accompanying Harley the last few months. Instead a man with obviously bleached blond hair stood next to Harley, hands buried in his pockets, and looking around at the shabby little convenience store he now found himself in. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see your friend there. One for him too or would he like something else?"

"Ah, Sal, you know that your egg sandwiches are the only thing in this store that won't give you salmonella! Two egg sandwiches and this pack of breath mints." On that note, Harley plucked up a pack of _Ice Breakers_. She tossed the package over to the man who slid it into his pocket, producing a ten-dollar bill in its place which he promptly set down on the counter. "We'll split it on the way back."

"What's with the mints?" Sal asked. In all the time that Harley had been coming to him for her breakfast needs, he'd never seen stray from her usual order of just the sandwich, sometimes double when she had a little bit of extra money to burn through. 

"His partner's havin' a baby," Harley explained and gave Victor a playful shove. "And the scent of eggs makes him want to toss his cookies so they've been outlawed back at his apartment." 

"Ah." Sal said and that was all he needed to understand the situation in its entirety. He grabbed a couple of eggs from the nearby carton, cracked them against the grill, and let them fry while he went to grab some of the other ingredients to add. "It happens. When my wife was pregnant she'd get sick at the smell of peanut butter. She'd also cry at the kool-aid commercials so..." It was a weird time but at the end of the day, the pregnant person won. 

Harley snorted a laugh at that, "Romy starts crying at commercials, please take pictures. I wanna see."

"No." Victor stated quite simply. He would take pictures, of course he would, but those would be something that remained on Zsasz's phone for his own personal enjoyment. No one else. Not to mention if Roman found out that he had gotten a couple of snaps, Victor would end up on the bad end of one of his own knives. 

"Has he started with the late-night cravings yet?" Sal asked not looking up from the recently added bacon to the grill. "When my wife was pregnant, she would always wake up in the middle of the night to grab a snack. Pickles, popcorn, those little twinkie-cakes, you name it. She wanted it 2:00 am."

"I don't know about that." Victor replied. Roman still hated pickles with a firey passion, but he'd always had a bit of a snack-tooth for things like popcorn and potato chips so if he had been eating a bit more of his favorite snacks than usual, Victor hadn't taken notice. "He's been eating a lot more red meat lately though. I may actually get him to go to _MacDonald's_ if he keeps it up."

"Don't count on it." Harley told him with a bit of an eye roll. The thought of Roman Sionis, _THE_ Roman Sionis, actually stepping into a damn MacDonald's to grab a burger and then sitting down to eat at one of those little plastic tables...there'd be a better chance of Superman crashing down through the ceiling of the convenience store at that very moment, scooping everybody up, and then flying off into space. "So what now?"

"We go back to Roman and give him the name. Then we plan," Victor explained, the routine drilled into his head from years of working for Roman and carrying out almost every single one of his hits. "And we kill her when he wants us to kill her. Hopefully, torture her a little bit beforehand but we'll have plenty of time to discuss that."

"Kinda playing the long-con with this one, huh?"

"Well, Roman wants to be there and if the smell of eggs is bugging him how do you think he'd react to a peeled off face?"

"Fair enough." Better to wait and not risk having the man who was supposed to portray the image of a remorseless gang leader puke when they were trying to get answers from someone who had tried to make a fool out of him. No, they would wait, they would plan, and they would let the woman stew in her fear until the moment finally came and Victor was adding a scare to his chest for her. "Think I can tag along then? See you at work?" 

"Why not?" Usually, Victor's audiences for a face-peeling was limited to Roman and whatever other guys the boss insisted on tagging along and they didn't have the same sense of enthusiasm for the craft as Roman did. They just sort of stood there, lingering awkwardly, and waiting for dismissal. Most of them were guys Roman felt needed to be served a reminder of what he was capable of. Out of the corner of his eye, Victor saw Sal wrapping up the sandwiches in foil and he brought them over to the pair. Victor handed Harley's off to her before taking his own, "Thanks Sal."

Harley already had the foil off and was digging in by the time Victor turned to head to the door. With a mouth full of food, she offered the cook a quick wave goodbye, "See you later!" She called out, somehow not spewing any of her egg and roll anywhere, and stepped outside with Victor hot on her heels,

"How many times a week do you buy sandwiches from that guy?"

"Just take a bite and you'll see what I'm talking about." 

* * *

After about a half-hour of talking to Bruce about the old times (stories about the trouble they got into graduation night, old hook-ups with classmates, the time Roman, Bruce, and Harvey took a trip to the heart of Manhattan and spent the week staying at The Crowne Plaza in Times Square), the other man cast a quick glance down at his watch and took note of the time. He explained that he had a meeting with the board of directors in an hour and Roman told him that he should get going then, that he could always show up at the club later to continue their reminiscing about their time at the academy. Bruce started to get ready but he still wasn't completely convinced, "You sure you're going to be okay on your own?" He asked, "I don't mind waiting until your guy gets back."

"Bruce, I'm a grown man. I can take care of myself for ten minutes." 

"I know that but I'm still going to worry." 

"You're such a mom-friend." Even back in the day. If Bruce wasn't drunk off his ass himself, he was always the one who made sure Harvey and Roman got back home safe in their beds and weren't off driving drunk or hooking up with random strangers from they'd met in the bars. Bruce always looked after them back then, kind of like he was doing now. Suddenly Roman felt a wave of guilt for limiting the time he spent with the other man after all that unpleasantness a couple of years back. 

"Well, if you ever need me, you know how to find me." 

"I know," Somewhere in the back of Roman's phone, hidden away in his endless list of contacts, was Bruce's cell phone number along with the number for Wayne Manor. One way or another he could get ahold of Bruce if he needed him. "Thank you. I appreciate it." 

Roman watched him leave. Not that he thought that Bruce of all people would come charging back in or try and hideout or something. He just wanted to see him get out okay. The gang leader placed a hand over his stomach, "He's a nice enough guy." Roman said. "Actually I think that may be his problem. Too nice for his own good, you know what I mean?" Bruce wasn't the type to let people walk all over him, but sometimes he was too lost in his connections to the past that he seemingly turned a blind eye to the present. Or maybe he didn't and he just decided not to bring it up. It was hard to tell. Something in the back of the omega's head clicked and he realized what exactly he was doing. "Of course you don't. You don't know what anything is. So I'm just...standing here talking to myself." He sighed and made his way back over to the lift, "Let's go take a nap while we wait for your father to get back."


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last couple of chapters were pretty heavy so have some lighter stuff, along with a bit of an explanation for what's going on in Harley's head as she's helping these two trashbags out.

By the time they made it back to the rolls, Harley had polished off her sandwich and Victor had a couple of bites left of his. He was briefly tempted to just toss Harley the keys and let her drive while he ate but, remembering what happened the last time she got behind the wheel of Roman's prized car, opted to scarf down the remainder of his sandwich and quickly popped a couple of the breath mints instead. Quinn didn't seem to mind. She just climbed into the passenger's seat and let Victor ride along in his preferred silence. Nothing much happened after that and they were back at The Black Mask Club in a matter of minutes. Victor pulled into Roman's usual space and Harley hopped out, "I'm going to head back and check on Cass." She explained. "You need any more help, just give me a call." 

"Right." The kid. Harley's new kid. Who was presumably out pick-pocketing or collecting funds on the east side. Victor was about to just call it a day and head inside but something stopped him. "Hey Quinn," He called after her. "Why exactly are you doing this?"

Harley stopped and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her coat and looked around as she tried to piece her thought process behind this entire mess together, "Your boy is in a vulnerable spot right now and a lot of people are going to try and take advantage of that." She began. "And even with all our...history, I don't think that's right. So if I can help him shake those bastards off, I will." It hadn't been in her mind that night she brought Cass down to the club that she was going to be helping Roman of all people, her intentions that night had been getting plastered and seeing the veins on Roman's forehead throb, but the second she put two and two together and realized that Romy was expecting all of that went flying out the door. It took a real piece of work to take advantage of someone when they were pregnant and she for one would not stand for it. No matter how many times they tried to kill each other in the past. 

"Well..." There was something admirable about that, as painful as it was for Victor to admit. Maybe there was still a bit of a brain left inside that neon head of hers after all. That or some kind of conscious. "Thanks." He said and that was good enough for the clown. She started off, walking down the streets to wherever she had stashed her car and Victor headed into the club to go deliver their progress report to his employer. He found The Black Mask Club completely empty, devoid of any signs of human life, but on the off chance Roman was hiding somewhere Victor decided to call out, "Boss?" 

No reply. 

It didn't take Victor long to piece together where Roman had gone. He took the lift upstairs and, on a hunch, went straight to the bedroom where, sure enough, Roman was fast asleep on his side snuggling a pillow half under Victor's _Deadpool_ throw blanket (one that, at the beginning of their cohabitation, Victor had to stubbornly keep bringing back into their bed mind you) while Roman's 1500 thread count sheets were left untouched. The bodyguard just chuckled and, after kicking off his boots (Roman had a thing about shoes in the bedroom) sat down next to his employer's sleeping form on the bed. He leaned over and gently pressed a kiss to Roman's forehead, "You're the only person capable of bringing out this soft side in me, you know that?" The only one who was able to avoid his sharp edges (or, rather, the sharp edge of his blade) and see Victor behaving like a man, not simply an assassin who carved himself up as a reminder of each person he helped free from the trappings of the mortal world. Well, that was the poetic way of thinking about it. Victor had a habit or flip-flopping over it on his lower days. He found himself placing one of his hands flat across Roman's stomach, "Well, and you too. I take care of your dad, and I'll take care of you. Nothing and no one is ever going to hurt you, as long as I'm around." 

Without opening his eyes or even giving any hint that he had been awake this entire time, Roman's lips curled up into a smirk, "Victor, you are aware that our child can't hear you. I don't think they even have ears yet." He pointed out. 

"The sentiment is there. Maybe they'll pick up on it." Victor countered though he knew that his argument was weak at best. Now that he was aware that Roman was awake and he wouldn't be disturbing him, Victor laid back behind his boyfriend and took the liberty of wrapping his arms around Roman's waist, snuggling into his shoulder. Roman relaxed into his hold but didn't let go of the pillow yet. 

"How'd it go?" He asked. 

"Got a name. Whenever you want to bring her in, cut her up, turn her into chum, it'll take about ten minutes." Victor was already coming up with a dozen different ways to make their gossipy nurse learn her lesson; he liked the idea of straying from their usual habits of slitting throats and peeling faces, no, she needed something special for coming after their family in such a way. Feeding her to the sharks in Gotham harbor kept popping up as a possible solution in Zsasz's mind but it would be hard to get a nice view of the carnage from along the docks or even on the boat if they opted to take one out. Oh well, he could piece together something perfect for the woman by the time Roman was ready to have him carry out the hit, along with scouting out the best spot to carve a mark for her. 

"Speaking of names," Roman said. "Is it too early to talk about names?"

"I don't think so," Naming seemed to be one of those things that just got done; it depended entirely upon the parents as to when that happened. Some people didn't have any idea what they wanted to name their child until the baby was in their arms and they were being handed a form to fill out with no idea what they were going to put in the spaces. Well, better now he supposed, than when Roman was too high on pain-killers to tell Victor what he wanted. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, there's a tradition in my family regarding middle names," Roman explained. "They're always places, cities."

Victor's face twisted up in confusion, "Why?"

"It's the place they were conceived." 

"Oh god!" This child was going to have an interesting life to say the least. "So this kid is going to find out that they were the result of birthday sex and where it happened? Oh God!" 

"I know," It hadn't been a happy memory for him, piecing together the deeper meaning behind his less than common middle name at the tender age of twelve when Roman was just trying to complete a project for school. "Which is why I'm saying we ignore that terrible tradition once and for all. What kind of middle name would Gotham be anyway?" The kind of middle name that got their kid laughed at during school, that's what! 

"The worst one." Victor agreed. He pressed a quick kiss to the back of Roman's neck and thought for a second. There was one name that kept popping into his mind; one from a long time ago that had Zsasz's stomach twisting up in a knot. "What do you think about Rozalia? If it's a girl?" He asked. 

"Rozalia," Roman repeated, drawing the name out and mulling it over for any possible flaw. He couldn't find any. "It's pretty. Okay, Rozalia." It was unique and beautiful, but at the same time wasn't something that would come off as pretentious or too _creative_ for lack of a better term. "We could call her Rose for short." Which was a really cute thought. Roman had always been fond of flower names, no matter how cheesy this came across. 

Victor nodded in agreement, "Rozalia Sionis has a nice ring to it." It was a name with power; an almost regal name. 

"You want to give them my surname?" Well, that was the logical thing to do even if it wasn't what was traditionally expected. The Sionis name carried a lot of weight in this shit-show of a city and would make certain people hesitate to do anything that could possibly cause the child harm. At the same time, that name was a burden; a shackle binding his not-yet-born child into the world's worst family tree. Roman finally let go of the pillow he'd been clinging to and rolled over so he could wrap his arms around his boyfriend instead. "What do you think of Adam? For a boy?"

"Adam Sionis." Something about that name just sounded right. It rolled off the tongue so easily. "I like it."

"It's simple but strong. I'm pretty that all of Gotham will be expecting us to saddle this kid with some pretentious name like _Benedict_ or _Preston_ , or pick a generic name and then spell it really weird like _Tyffaneigh_ or _KVIItlynn_. You know? Stick the kid with some strange name and hope their personality grows around it?"

"Ever since you got pregnant what little filter you had before has completely shut off and I am loving it." 

"I want my kid to be able to actually spell their name." Their son would have no problem learning how to spell Adam. Rozalia may pose a bigger challenge, but if they were to call her Rose as a nickname their daughter wouldn't struggle as much. "And not have people stumble over it whenever they are being called on in school. Is that so wrong of me?"

"Middle names?"

"We'll deal with that later," Roman replied. Maybe it was just his personal opinion but he was less concerned about the baby's middle name. It wasn't like he was going to be standing on the playground shouting that name to try and get his kid to come home. So long as he wasn't handed a pen and given full-command to scribble something while he was still out of it, Roman was confident that they could come up with something in time. It could come to them one night in the club, or watching a movie, but it would hit them sooner or later and if it didn't..."That's something that can wait until the day of." 

Victor couldn't find a problem with that so he just nuzzled against his boyfriend and leaned over to press yet another little kiss to the back of Roman's neck. Roman gradually rolled over so they were facing each other and asked, "Hey Victor?"

"Yeah?"

"You know that I love you right?"

"I know." 

"I'm hungry." 

Should have seen that one coming. Still, Victor snorted a laugh, "Alright. What do you want to eat?"

"Do we have any more roast beef? I want something red..."

Zsasz was half-convinced that their child was a velociraptor or some other carnivore. "We ran out of the roast beef last night," Which limited their options for anything involving red meat significantly. "There's always burgers but Santigo is off tonight and I can't grill to save my life so..."

Roman caught what Victor was implying and sighed dramatically, "Fineeeee. I guess that just this once, until we get this red meat situation under control, I could handle... _fast food_." Still, he was unable to stop himself from shivering at the thought of actually consuming something so...cheap and greasy...but what choice did he have? "No MacDonald's though. I have standards." The line in the sand needed to be drawn somewhere. "Pick your favorite."

"That'll be Wendy's then." Hopefully, that was high enough above MacDonald's for Roman to be satisfied. "You just want a burger or...?"

"Use your discretion." Roman didn't know enough about the menu to actually request anything by name. All he knew was he wanted a burger, a decent-sized burger with cheese and bacon, maybe two. "Just remember to have them drench the thing in onions and whatever condiments they put on the burger and that, if I find a single damn pickle slice, I'll slit your throat." 

Victor rolled his eyes and planted a quick kiss on Roman's cheek before sitting up to put his boots on and go out again, "I love you too." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If your name is Benedict, Preston, Tyffaneigh, or KVIItlynn, I am terribly sorry.


	11. Chapter 11

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Victor asked as he waited for Roman to emerge from their bedroom, leaning back against the doors to the lift. "People would understand if you decided to put this off for a little bit."

Roman strode out adjusting the sleeves of his suit. It was one of his more modest set of clothes, basic black but formfitting and very flattering to Roman's form. "The average gestation period of a human being is 40 weeks, with 35 to 37 weeks being considered carrying it to term. I am, currently, pushing fourteen weeks. That leaves me with at least 21 weeks left and, at most, around 26, not counting if it's delayed. I am not going to spend 20 to 30 weeks cooped up in the apartment because of some blabbermouth nurse. Let's go." 

Victor suppressed the urge to snort at that. He may have thought that he was being sneaky, but Victor had seen Roman reading some book on pregnancy on his kindle and clearly he was picking up on a couple of things. But who was he to argue with Roman? Victor stepped aside so that Roman could enter the lift first and then stepped in after him, "Alright. I'm right behind you." 

The Black Mask Club was in full swing by the time the lift doors opened and Roman and Victor stepped out into the thick of it. Their staff had always been professional, even when Roman was unusually absent. The gang leader smiled and made the mental note to give everybody working that night a raise. "Nice to see that the place hasn't fallen to pieces without me." He remarked and quickly swooped in to give Victor a peck on the cheek, their rules against PDA be damned! "You've done a fantastic job of keeping everything going in my absence, Mister Zsasz." 

"Thank you, Boss," Victor replied and leaned in to return the favor. Out of nowhere Roman froze and started starring out into space. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. It's just that..." Roman sighed and Victor tried to follow his gaze to see what was upsetting him. His eyes landed on a man sitting alone at a booth, nursing a rum and coke, and looking around anxiously. He was dressed in a fine tailored suit and looked like he had strolled right out of some posh country club, very out of place compared to the other club patrons in sparkly designer clothes and multi-colored hair. Victor didn't need to ask who the man was; he knew exactly who he was. Victor had seen the guy in multiple campaign ads on television. "Right after the story went for broke, an old friend came and talked to me and now I see another one hovering around my club."

"Harvey Dent? The new DA?" Victor asked unable to hide his disbelief. "You were friends with that guy?!"

"It was a long time ago." The implication being that they were friends before Roman started amassing his own personal army and began sleeping with a contract killer who got his rocks off to peeling off his victims' faces, slitting their throats, and turning them to chum at his employer's command, and before Dent had taken up the ambitious goal of cleaning Gotham of all its' corruption. "We haven't talked in years."

"Do you want me to toss him out?" 

"No. It's okay." Roman said with the slight wave of his hand. Dent wasn't an idiot, he wouldn't come to The Black Mask Club looking for a fight. If he was here, he had to have a reason. And Roman was willing to bet that it had something to do with his previous visit with Bruce. "I, uh, I'm going to go talk to him for a few minutes, Kay? Do you mind going and making the rounds?"

Victor looked between his employer and the prosecutor currently occupying a booth in Roman's front for a criminal empire. He had a bad feeling about this...but who was he to argue with Roman? "Alright." He mumbled, but it sounding unconvincing, even to himself. 

"Relax, Victor. I'm only going to be a couple of feet away." 

Victor couldn't argue with that logic so he just watched as Roman made his way over to Dent in the booth and sat down to join him. He lingered for a couple of minutes, just to ensure that Dent really hadn't come here looking for trouble, but when nothing happened he decided to listen to Roman's request and start making rounds. It was a Saturday so the majority of the club's patrons were college kids looking for a spot of fun between finals with a couple of regulars scattered throughout the building. As Victor was about to double back and go speak with the bar staff to see if they had any problems that night, he felt a hand wrap around his wrist and pull him back towards one of the booths. "Hey, Victor!" an obnoxiously loud voice all but shouted. "You remember me, man? Di Micco's crew! '02!" 

Victor stared down at the guy hanging off of him. He seemed vaguely familiar but the alpha was unable to put a name to the face. He tried to think back to the crews he worked with in 2002, tried to remember the guys he hung around with for Di Micco, but only one name sprung to mind. He decided to take the gamble, "Uh, yeah...Cyrus, right?" 

"Yeah!" Cyrus exclaimed and finally succeeded in pulling Victor alongside him into the booth. He was sitting with two other guys, both a little rough looking but nothing that Victor couldn't handle. If he was being honest, he would say that the guys looked like a couple of posers. One of them, currently downing a tall, frosty glass of ale, even had frosted tips in his hair! "Guys this is Victor Zsasz, he used to run with us!" Cryus announced to them. "You know, before he _stepped up_." Cyrus added with a laugh. 

"What's so funny?" Victor asked. He didn't get it. What was funny about him getting a stable source of employment with Black Mask? 

"Aww, you know man." One of Cyrus' friends drew out and gave the confused killer a bit of a playful shove. "You went from being some common goon to Roman Sionis' boytoy! Mad props, man! Mad props!"

"Hey, I mean, you gonna be the boytoy of somebody it may as well be Roman Sionis!" Cyrus all but hollered and leaned over the side of the booth, his gaze landing on Roman sitting with Dent, and let out this low, predatory growl, "Legs for days and those pretty hips that just make you want to grab hold of them and fuck 'im!" He exclaimed. "Hottest gangster in Gotham! Hottest!"

The third man in their party shrugged and took a nice long sip from his drink, "I don't know, I think Poison Ivy's above him on that list."

This remark went completely ignored by the other members of the trio. Cyrus threw his arm around Victor's shoulders and gave him a tight squeeze, "Not only does our boy here get the Black Mask into his bed, he knocks him up too!" His friends erupted with laughter and slammed their drinks down on the table. "The king! The king!" 

"Tell us about it man! Come on, he's gotta be a real freak in bed huh? Real kinky and flexible? I mean, he's gotta be after how many people he fucked back in day-"

All of this was coming off as static. Victor's brain had shut off immediately after hearing the word _boytoy_ and suddenly he was yanked back from his blissful world of ignorance, brought on by him just tuning their nonsense out. But Victor was back in the real world now, back in The Black Mask Club, surrounded by three drunken idiots with a death wish. Well, Victor would happily oblige. "Yeah," He mumbled. "Yeah, I'll tell you about it guys..." Victor slowly slid out of his booth and rose to his feet. "Just uh, we'll have to go upstairs. Don't want him overhearing..."

* * *

One of the downsides about being friends with a lawyer was the fact that they could carry on a conversation for hours and hours without fail. The fact that it had been a long time since Harvey and Roman sat down and had a proper conversation also added to the list of new developments to discuss. As Roman had suspected, Harvey had spoken to Bruce about what was going on with their old companion and it got the new DA in the bit of a mood. Even after two years he still felt a sense of responsibility for the other man and wanted to check in on Roman for himself. But their conversation did not just stay there. They talked about everything that had changed in their lives since the last time they hung out together, about some of Harvey's more difficult cases and his own dating history while Roman was careful to stick to his legal activities. After what seemed like minutes, but was in reality nearly two hours, Harvey caught sight of the time, said goodbye, and left, having mentioned something about needed to go over some documents regarding an upcoming case he was prosecuting. Roman didn't object and bid him goodnight. Maybe it was the baby getting to him, making him soft, but for whatever reason Roman simply wasn't in the mood to fight that night. He stood up and stretched, "Now, where'd your father go?" He was fully aware that he was talking to his child (who obviously still could not respond) in the middle of a nightclub burgeoning on closing but fuck it! It was his damn club, he could do what he wanted! "Victor?" He asked and did a quick look around the room. Normally it was easy for him to catch a glimpse of the other man, his bleached hair being something that stood out easily but if he was there, Roman couldn't see him. "Huh...that's odd. Usually, I can't get away from him." 

As the club was clearing out, it made it easier for Roman to search for his missing companion. He did his usual final lap of the place and, when there was still no sign of Victor, made his way over to the bar where the overly chipper cocktail waitress he'd hired a couple of months back was hard at work cleaning some glasses. While she had only been there for a short amount of time, Roman had already gone out of his way to learn the girl's name (she deserved it. She was a hard worker and Roman was already planning on spoiling her with a couple of lavish gifts that he had previously offered to his little songbird). "Hey, Melody? You seen where Victor went?"

"He went upstairs a little while ago Boss," Melody replied with an easy-going grin and kept on wiping down the glasses. "A couple of guys were with him but he seemed fine." While she may not have been aware of the club's illicit business activities, Victor always carried himself in a way that made others feel intimidated and back off, made it seem like he was capable of fighting off anyone who would ever dare to try and pull anything over him. Even if Melody didn't know the meaning behind all of his scars, she got the sense that Victor could take care of himself which she wasn't wrong about. 

So Victor had gone up the apartment without telling him? Roman's face twisted up in confusion but he supposed he'd get answers in a minute, "Kay. Think you can close up tonight?" 

"No problem boss!"

Confident that the club was in good hands, Roman made his way towards the lift, stepped inside, and hit the button to go up. This hadn't been the first time Victor had fled from the Black Mask Club while Roman was still making his rounds but all of those previous times had been related to illness. When Victor got the flu, he ran up to seal himself up in the apartment bathroom to spare himself the embarrassment of puking in the middle of the dance floor, but even then he had managed to send Roman a text explaining the situation as it was happening. Roman's phone was eerily silent. The gang leader shrugged it off and stepped out into the apartment when the lift doors opened. "Victor?" He called out and heard something crinkle beneath his feet. "...Victor, should I even ask why there's a tarp on my floor?"

Victor poked his head out from the bathroom down the hall and, seeing it was his boyfriend, grinned wildly and stepped out with his latest work in hand. He held it up so that Roman could get a better look. "This is why." 

"Oh!" Roman had not expected to see any severed faces tonight so wasn't this a surprise? He quickly closed the distance between the two so he could better examine Victor's handiwork. Whoever this man was, Roman didn't know him or didn't know him enough to have bothered to learn his name. It was such a clean peel too, hardly a blemish or a scratch along the edges. "Well, this is beautiful..." He mused but then something clicked in the back of his head. Melody said that Victor had come up here with a couple of guys, not just one. "How many do you have?"

"Three including this one. I got rid of the other two because they struggled and it was messier but this one was a work of art, I knew you'd want to see it," Victor replied. "They were saying all kinds of nasty shit about you and I couldn't wait. I'm honestly surprised I didn't just gut them there." 

"Well isn't this a pleasant surprise! Normally I don't approve of killing in the apartment but when it's this beautiful." They could make some exceptions so long as Victor remembered to clean up the mess in a way that didn't tip off any of their club staff or patrons. "You remember to take the bodies out the back?"

Victor nodded, "I just got one more bag left to toss. How about I take it out and then we go get a shower?" He practically purred. Roman was insistent about Victor carrying out his ritual in the bathroom where any messes and any accidents could be easily contained. He had also taken to watching Victor add the additional tallies to his skin, sometimes piping in with spots that he thought would make a good location for them. Once the marks had been carved and both were satisfied that Victor wasn't going to bleed out, Roman would pull him into the shower for some more fun, yet another perk of carrying out the ritual in the bathroom. So, when Victor suggested grabbing a shower, Roman couldn't help but shiver, 

"Sounds like heaven." 

Still grinning wildly Victor ducked back into the bathroom to grab the remaining garbage bag and Roman waited out in the hall for the act to be carried out. "So," the gang leader mumbled and placed his hand over his stomach. It still felt flat, which was beginning to grow concerning, but Roman figured that he would just keep an eye on it and bring it up to Dr. Bennet the next time he saw her, "You don't like the smell of eggs but the smell of clotting blood and open flesh is fair game, huh? As if there was any wonder whose baby you are."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a little less impressed with this chapter but cut me some slack! I was up until 7:30 working on a paper! I'm running on like four hours of sleep! Anyways, I have a new chapter sitting in my drafts ready to go, just need to be worked on a little bit further, and then it should be up. Maybe even tonight! The next one is one that I'm really excited about. Lots of plot stuff! I hope you guys will like it! :D


	12. Chapter 12

"I'm starting to get worried," Roman mumbled as he looked at his reflection in his standing mirror. "In a couple of weeks Bennet is going to try and do a sonogram and I feel like I'm not gaining any weight." Not as much as Roman had been expecting to have gained by this point. He pulled his shirt tight around his stomach and groaned when he didn't see anything resembling a bump. He should have at least started to develop something by now! The gang leader turned to the two girls currently lounging about on his couch tossing popcorn into their mouths and asked, "What do you think?"

"Turn to the side?" Harley asked and for once Roman complied without even the mildest complaint. "Hmm...Well, your belly is getting softer."

Roman sighed and waved her off, "That's not the same." He told her and finally gave up trying to look for the impossible. He joined Harley and Cassandra on the couch, flopping rather dramatically down between the pair. When Victor was done making them more popcorn he would be joining them for their Disney movie marathon. Somehow Harley had discovered that Roman had a subscription for Disney Plus and had insisted on having a movie night to "de-stress". Both Roman and Victor were aware that this was just her cover to sneak in and watch _The Mandalorian_ when they weren't looking but even a pair of psychopaths couldn't turn down an excuse to watch Treasure Planet. 

Harley seemed unconvinced and shrugged him off, "Don't worry about it. Sometimes babies are just small." She pointed out. "Or maybe they're plannin' on gainin' all the weight durin' your last couple months."

"Oh joy," Roman replied with an eye-roll. Waking up one morning to suddenly find that he had gained enough weight to make it look like he'd shoved a beach ball up his pajama top sounded like something out of his nightmares. In fact, it had been a nightmare that he'd had before. He shuddered and grabbed a handful of popcorn from the clown's bowl to distract himself. 

"Hey," Harley said suddenly. "Are ya a gamblin' man, Romy?"

That was a difficult question to answer. He didn't consider himself to have an addiction by any means, but Roman knew how to play a couple of card games and would frequent the casinos whenever he ended up passing through Las Vegas or Atlantic City, but those trips only occurred every couple of years. Whenever the heat was catching on and Roman suddenly got the desire to travel and stay low for a couple of weeks. "What do you have in mind?" He asked. 

"Bet ya the rights to the middle name I can guess the gender."

"What do you mean the rights to the middle name?" 

"I mean if I get it right, I pick out the middle name and ya have to go with it," Harley explained. "It's not gonna be somethin' bad. Just one name. Hell, if ya wanted you could give 'em a bunch of middle names!" 

"If it's really bad do I get the right to veto?" Harley said that her choice wouldn't be something but bad Roman suspected that without the right to protest it, his child was going to end up with something ridiculous as their middle name. Something stupid like Danger or Ace that ensured that anyone standing nearby whenever Roman or Victor had to use it, questioned whether or not they were capable of being decent parents. Harley agreed to that rule, however, so Roman just shrugged, "Alright then. Shoot your shot."

Harley placed both of her hands flat against Roman's stomach and moved them around in small, gentle circles, closing her eyes and humming under her breath as if she was a psychic trying to read between the void. Roman rolled his eyes. Why did he suspect that it would be anything else, anything professional with her? "Boy." She said suddenly, "Definitely a little boy." 

Her hands lingered on Roman's stomach for a moment but he made no effort to push them away. When nothing happened, the gang leader just sighed. "Nothing. I was hoping that would wake them up a bit." 

"Not moving yet either?" Harley asked. 

"No..." 

"It'll be okay Romy." 

"Yeah," Cassandra agreed, her mouth finally free of popcorn so she could finally join in on the conversation. "Your kid is probably just being an asshole." 

Harley giggled, "Hasn't even been born yet and he's already taking after you." 

"Ladies, stop comforting me, please." 

* * *

Roman couldn't sleep. Harley and Cassandra had been gone for hours, Victor was completely dead to the world next to him in bed, and Roman was just laying there next to him starring up at the ceiling. He was starving too and, for the last couple of weeks, that hunger had translated into a desire for red meat. He wanted a burger and this late at night there weren't a lot of options to go get one. Roman rolled over onto his side and gave his bodyguard a light shove, "Victor? Victor, you awake?" The other man just kept right on snoring, blissfully unaware of his partner's distress. 

This was ridiculous. He was a grown man, a gang leader, one of the most powerful men in Gotham, and if he wanted to go out and get something to eat in the middle of the night, he was fucking going to! It was literally taking a walk up the street and back, Roman was capable of that. He got up and went to the closet to grab something comfortable because no one, not even a man who had 96% of his wardrobe custom made or imported from the best tailors in the world, got dressed up for a late-night snack run. There were a pair of Tempera Europa joggers that Roman usually used whenever he wanted to do yoga that had been gathering dust as of late. He switched out his pajama bottoms for them and went about searching the closet for the matching hoodie. He knew he had it in there somewhere but it didn't turn up so instead, he locked eyes on an old semi-faded Gotham High drawstring hoodie; Victor's, how it ended up among Roman's clothes he had no idea but he was happy to see it. Roman tossed off his pajama top, leaving his white tank top, and pulled his hoodie on over it. He swapped his slippers out for a pair of sneakers and grabbed his wallet, keys, phone, and earbuds on the way out the door. Roman waited until he was in the lift to connect his earbuds, put them in, and turn the shuffle on to his musicals playlist on Spotify. He exited The Black Mask Club and started walking north towards the nearest burger joint with the opening song to Little Shop of Horrors blasting in his ears. 

Gradually over the course of the pregnancy, Victor had been weaning him onto the various fast food places around Gotham but he had yet to actually eat anything from MacDonald's. A couple of blocks from the club, a smaller version of the restaurant appeared up ahead and Roman decided _fuck it_ ; he was hungry and his kid wanted red meat so it would have to do for now. He just hoped that nobody recognized him when he went to order. 

As it would turn out MacDonald's was a popular place to go when you had the munchies late at night. The place wasn't bursting at the seams when Roman entered and made his way to the mobile kiosk to order but there were a couple of tables hosting some college kids, a few guys who looked like they just got off work, and even another pregnant omega sitting around eating or waiting to receive their orders. Suddenly Roman felt a lot better about making this late-night trip. He ended up ordering a double quarter pounder with cheese and extra onions, fries, and a strawberry milkshake which he opted to eat inside because there was no way his order was going to stay fresh the entire way back. A lack of freshness did not stop Roman from ordering some donut sticks to much on during the walk back and for tomorrow morning. Not to mention if Victor had woke up during the time Roman was gone, he'd have something to offer him to apologize for ducking out without an explanation, though something told Roman that his companion was still fast asleep. If Victor had woken up and seen that his employer was gone, he would have fired off around fifty text messages to his boyfriend, not to mention tried to call him. Roman's phone hadn't received a single message. He left the MacDonald's with the bag containing his donut sticks in hand, the soundtrack to Six turned up almost to full volume. In hindsight, he really should have turned it down. Maybe then he would have heard the black escalade with tinted windows pull up behind him, heard one of the doors open, or the two guys who exited the vehicle run up behind him. Roman did, however, notice when a pair of strong arms grabbed hold of his torso while someone forced a burlap sack over his head. He dropped his bag, squirmed and screamed, tried to wriggle his way free but it was no match and Roman was forced into the back seat of the car between the two men. He couldn't see through the burlap but he could hear the car door slam shut behind them and lurched forward as the car peeled off. "What the **_fuck!?_** " He snarled at his attackers. "Fuck!? Fucking fuck! Do you have any idea who the fuck I am!? You better let me the fuck go!" 

"We know all about you kid." Someone fired back and Roman couldn't help himself, he took a blind swing and was off by a mile. _Kid?!_ Did he look like a fucking kid to these guys!? Stupid fucking fuckers! The second he was out of here, Roman was going to have Victor flay these bastards alive; vivisect them! "Roman Sionis." 

"What the fuck is this?!" Roman demanded and took another swing. He heard someone laugh at such a pathetic display and feel the blood rising to his face. The gaul of these people! Thinking that they could just get away with this, that they could pick Roman up like he was some common creature! Well, they would learn. Roman would make them learn their lesson for messing with him! "I'll have you gutted! I'll rip your faces off and feed them to the sharks! I'll-" The man sitting next to him lifted the burlap up and Roman came face to face with another man. This man, older than the two but with the coldest, most unfeeling eyes, was sitting in the front passenger's seat but had turned and was leaning into the back just to see the spark die in Roman's eyes. And die it did. All of that confidence, all of those threats and attempts to sock his attackers right in their noses was gone and suddenly Roman wanted nothing more than to hide himself away somewhere dark and cold. " _...oh god..._ " 

"Hello Roman." The man greeted him with a wide grin, "Long time no see. I'm ashamed to hear you still have such a foul mouth. Honestly, I thought I raised you better." 


	13. Chapter 13

Roman wasn't there when Victor woke up. Zsasz opened his eyes and was stunned to see the spot next to him empty. His boyfriend was by no means an early riser and in all the time that they had been cohabitating Victor could count the number of times his companion had woken up before him on one hand. Victor groaned and rubbed at his eyes, "Roman?" He called out figuring that the other man may have gotten up earlier than usual to get a shower or something. When he got no response, Victor forced himself up from the bed and staggered towards the bathroom. To his surprise, the room was empty and the lights were still off. "Boss?" 

Okay...so maybe Roman had gotten up early in order to go and get something to eat. Victor stretched and stumbled out into the kitchen still in his pajama bottoms, not bothering to get changed yet, though he did grab hold of his phone off the bedside table. He did find one person in the kitchen, hard at work slaving over a hot stove. Unfortunately, it was not the person Victor was looking for. "Morning Santigo, have you seen Roman?"

Santigo looked up from the muffin batter he had been mixing. Ever since Roman had outlawed eggs as part of their breakfasts, the old cook had been experimenting with what he could serve. Banana chocolate chip muffins had been the favorite though they were becoming less and less of a breakfast item and more of a snack to be picked up whenever one of them was feeling hungry between meals. Roman had eaten the last of them yesterday after lunch so Santigo hoped to have this batch in the oven before his employer woke up. Or at least, he thought the man was going to be waking up soon. "No, I assumed he was still sleeping. Is he not in there?"

"No." How strange. Well maybe Roman had forgotten to do something when the club had closed the other night, or he could have forgotten something when he was down there earlier and had just snuck down to go grab it. It had happened before. There was no reason to jump the gun just yet. "I'm going to check downstairs."

Victor took the lift downstairs and when the doors opened was greeted by an eery silence. The lights were still off, everything had been wiped down and prepped for opening that night, and there was nothing, not even a speck of dust out of place. "Roman?" Victor called out, walking between the tables and booths, checking each to see if anything belonging to his boyfriend had been left behind; his phone, his wallet, his keys to the rolls, _something_ , but nothing had come up. "Boss?" Okay, so maybe he was starting to panic just a little bit. This just wasn't like Roman. Just to be safe Victor checked both of the bathrooms and the club's storage rooms, followed by yet another lap of the club on the very, very slim possibility that his boyfriend was playing some kind of prank and planning on jumping out at him. "Baby?" 

Nothing. Okay. Not good. Not good at all. Time to act like a possessive boyfriend and start blowing up his phone. Victor found Roman's number in his contact list and dialed, "Pick up. Pick up. Pick up..." Nothing. Roman didn't answer. The second Victor got his boyfriend's answering machine he hung up and tried again, and again, and again. After five attempts to call the other man, and about twenty text messages, the alpha decided to change his tactics and dialed another number. It was a long shot, he knew that, but if Roman wasn't there or they hadn't seen him then Zsasz could recruit them in his search. The phone rang for a couple of seconds before someone on the other end picked up,

"Hello?" 

"Quinn," Shit. So it wasn't the phone then. A part of Victor, a very naive, very childish part, had been hoping that his phone had been having issues and somewhere, a couple of blocks over, Roman had been going for a jog and wondering why the other man hadn't been replying to any of his messages. "You haven't heard from Roman today have you?"

"No," The clown replied, her words starting to slur together as she was still half-asleep. "Not since last night. Why?" 

"I woke up and he wasn't there. Or anywhere in the club." Victor explained and, as much as it pained him, he could hear his voice cracking under his words. Fuck! "He's not answering his phone and I can't find him!"

"Oh shit," Harley mumbled, suddenly much more awake. "Give me a second to wake Cass and we'll be right over." 

* * *

Harley Quinn was what one would call a reckless driver and that was just when she was cruising. When the girl had somewhere she needed to be, whether or not she had enough time to make it or even enough time to be early, she went double, sometimes even triple the speed limit. Victor had been outside the club pacing, he couldn't bring himself to step inside, when she pulled up, narrowly avoiding hitting the man in the process of parking. The kid hopped out first, offered Zsasz a little bit of a wave, followed by Quinn who jumped right into business. "What do you know?" 

"Last time I saw him we were going to bed." After the girls had left and Victor had straightened up, it had to have been after eleven, getting closer to midnight. Roman had been already laying in bed waiting for him when Zsasz finished up and things had seemed normal. If something had been bothering the other man or he had plans to go out somewhere, he hadn't mentioned them. "I wake up and he's gone but his pajamas are on the back of the chair, and a pair of sneakers are gone."

"Anything else?" 

"My old high school hoodie, I think." He hadn't worn it in years but Victor believed that he still had the old thing lingering around the apartment somewhere. Maybe it was out of sentiment and maybe it was due to Roman's inability to get rid of clothing himself, but whatever the reason the bodyguard was confident that the hoodie had still been hanging in the closet when he went to bed that night, only for it to now be gone. With a vague idea of what Roman was wearing when he left, it was now time for them to come up with a game plan. "We'll split up. You take north, I'll take south, kid'll take east and Santigo will still be here in case he comes back." 

Harley nodded firmly, "Right-"

"Um, guys?" Harley and Victor spun around to see Cass standing at the entrance to a small alleyway between two of the nearby buildings, holding up two objects she had found kicked aside and forgotten. She held them up so they both could get a better look and Victor felt his blood run cold. In her hands, Cass held Roman's red iPhone 11 and his wallet. 

"Oh no..." Well, that cleared things up, didn't it? Narrowed down the list of possibilities. Roman wasn't one to toss his belongings around, let alone something as important as his wallet and phone, and to find them outside, near an alleyway, completely ignored while the man was gone. An image flashed before Victor's eyes, of Roman being manhandled into some van by a bunch of thugs, and he had to clench his fists at his side to avoid striking the nearby brick wall and shattering his hand. Somebody took him...while he was sleeping, dead to the world, completely unawares, his employer, the love of his life, the one carrying his unborn child, had been picked up off the streets and taken god knows where. For all he knew, Roman could be dead by now. Victor's stomach twisted into a knot and it took all his strength to keep from vomiting there and then. For the first time in his life, he was grateful to hear Harley's voice ringing in his ear. 

"Victor," She called out and snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Come back to us darlin'." 

Victor took a deep breath, "When I find the person who did this..." Words failed to describe the levels of hurt that Victor would bring down upon that person. His entire world had shifted with everything going red. Liquify them. That's what he would do. Pulverize them until there was nothing left but a pool of blood and innards resting were once someone stood. Peeling away their face, slitting their throat and letting the blood drip down their chins, that would not be adequate punishment. They needed something more, something stronger, something worse. _The worst_. Whatever Zsasz came up with, none of the murders he committed afterward would ever live up to this one in terms of brutality. "There isn't going to be anything left." 

That sounded thoroughly horrifying and neither Harley or Cass doubted Victor's words for a second, but there wasn't enough time to open that can of worms right now. They'd worry about that when they were all gathered around over the slumped over body of the kidnapper, tied to a chair and completely at their mercy. "We're going to need someone to help us find him." Cass pointed out. "A detective-"

"Good thing you're friends with one." Victor pointed out. Well, not friends but they knew one. A former detective, mind you, but one who was still the best damn detective to ever grace the Gotham Police Department. One who had spent years studying Roman Sionis and the Sionis family, including those who may have had grudges against them all. If there was anyone, after Zsasz, who would know where they could find the gang leader it was her. "Call her. Get her here. I don't care what you have to say or do, make it happen."

"You do know what'll happen if we call her and she sees you, right?" Harley asked. Fuck, if she saw any of them there was a very good chance that the ex.cop would end the entire thing by hauling their collective asses off to jail! Not to mention her new colleague who was currently enjoying life as a vigilante, secure and happy with the false knowledge that her plan for revenge had been carried out. "There's no guarantee that she won't tell-"

"I don't care. If we're going to find him we're going to need a good cop and she's the best. I'll deal with whatever comes next later." What happened next didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was getting Roman and the baby back safe, no matter the cost. Victor shoved his hands into his pockets and started back towards where the rolls was parked. "Call her. I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Harley shouted after him. 

"To get us a good lawyer!" 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor gets a history lesson on the Sionis family and learns why Roman was disowned, what happened between him, Harvey, and Bruce, and gets some insight into who may have wanted to kidnap him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JUST A HEADS UP: This chapter mentions sexual assault. It doesn't happen and is referring to a past incident involving dubious consent (where nothing happened, again, but a character was in a dangerous situation). Proceed with caution. I've also made the decision that, if this is brought up again, I will place a heads up in the notes. There is also going to be something else happening shortly that I will mention a warning for in the notes (because Victor is going to go apeshit when he catches up with Richard and while I'm going to avoid gorey details, it's Victor. Gotta play it safe). 
> 
> Thanks everybody! :D

Court had been adjourned due to a bomb threat. In any other city, this may have been major news, something that had every lawyer in the state shaking with fear, but in Gotham that was just another day and the city's newly appointed DA was taking the adjournment in stride by opting to sleep in past six. It was rare for him to get more than six hours, eight if he was lucky, so this was a real treat to him. Someone people would have taken the opportunity to drink, stay out later the night before, to party, but not Harvey. All Harvey wanted to do was sleep. So, when about an hour before he had been planning on getting up, the lawyer was disturbed by a loud rapping on his front door he was more than a little peeved off. Donning a robe, Harvey stomped out from his bedroom and towards the door, yanking it open with more force than was probably necessary, more than ready to dig into whoever thought disturbing him at this hour would be a bright idea. All that righteous frustration came to a grinding halt when instead of opening the door to see one of his friends standing there, an unfamiliar man with bleached blond hair, covered from head to toe in scars was on the other side. "Harvey Dent," The man said, "I would say that it's nice to finally meet you but I'm not here under pleasant circumstances." 

"Hello," Harvey mumbled and cautiously reached for the door handle to shut the other man out. It wouldn't be the first time some questionable person came looking around his place for some representation in court. "I'm sorry but I don't think that I know you and I'm not-"

"No. You don't know me." The blond man cut him off. "But you know my boyfriend. That's why I'm here."

"Boyfriend? Who-" Harvey repeated and the man took the opportunity to push past him and enter the apartment. "Hey! You can't-"

"Roman." Was all the other man had to say to make the lawyer stop dead in his tracks. He had a name for the face now; Roman had mentioned the name of the man he had been seeing when they had been speaking the other night but he must have left because Roman had been unable to introduce them for himself. But Harvey remembered his name, Victor, and it was more than clear that Victor knew who he was. "Do you believe in coincidences Harvey? Because I don't. So when you come waltzing into The Black Mask Club after what I understand to be years to talk with Roman, only for him to go missing shortly after, well..."

"Missing?"

"There's an old saying," Victor stated and made himself at home on the couch. Harvey followed him over and took a seat across from him on his armchair. "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a dog, it's not a goddamn fish!" 

"Are you implying that I had something to do with Roman's disappearance?" 

"Did you?" 

"No!" Harvey exclaimed. "Fuck, no. Alright Roman and I, we had some hard times but we were friends, good friends, I wouldn't do anything that could hurt him." 

"Really?" Victor asked. "Well maybe that's it then? Roman said no..." He couldn't bring himself to finish that thought. He was fishing, Victor knew that, but if that had been what had happened to his missing employer, then the smartest thing the person responsible could do was to put a bullet in their brain before Victor got to them. Whether they were the DA or some common thug, he'd introduce them to a world of pain that could never be undone, that would leave the Gotham City coroner so traumatized that they'd end up in Arkham! 

Luckily Harvey seemed as appalled at the idea of someone kidnapping Roman for that purpose as the other man. His twist twisted up with disgust and he snarled a response, "Christ! What the fuck is the matter with you?" He demanded and Victor saw something strange flash in the DA's eyes. Something below the surface. It reminded him of being on a lake where the waters were too murky to properly see anything, but you could still make out the shadowy forms of fish swimming beneath the boat. There was something beneath but it was gone just as quickly as it appeared. "Are you always this possessive? I'll bet Roman loves that." 

"Actually he does but not in the way that you're thinking. Roman's a tease." The gang leader enjoyed seeing his bodyguard get jealous, get so worked up that he banged his head off the nearest surface, enjoyed the way Victor would grab at him afterward, not-so-subtly try to come up with a hundred excuses for why he needed to hold Roman's hand or wrap his arms around him, enjoyed the semi-angry sex that came at the very end. Roman enjoyed feeling desired. "I suppose I should apologize, here I am making a terrible first impression. I'm sure if we were meeting under other circumstances, if the love of my life, who happens to be pregnant with my baby, wasn't missing without his phone or wallet I'm sure we'd be having a grand old time right now." 

Harvey sighed and pushed his hair back out of his eyes. For a while he didn't say anything, he didn't know what he could say. All Harvey had wanted to do that day was sleep in a bit and enjoy his day off, he had not been expecting to get accosted by a scary-looking man storming into his apartment and accusing him of doing the most unspeakable things to someone he had once been so close to. What the fuck was he supposed to say to that? _It's okay dude, by all means come on in and yell at me about how I'm a terrible person!_ Fuck, he needed a cigarette. "I'm sorry." Harvey finally murmured. "Not because I did anything but because of the circumstances. I...what can I do to help?"

"Roman said something to me about a bunch of old friends dropping by as of late. You and someone else."

"Bruce," Harvey confirmed with a nod. "Bruce spoke with him first. After _Good Morning Gotham_ outed his condition." 

"Bruce? As in Bruce Wayne?"

"We were friends. All three of us. We had a falling out a couple of years ago and...well...things never really recovered."

"What happened?" Victor asked. "Could it have anything to do with this?" He had his doubts that Bruce Wayne would be capable of carrying out something as serious as a kidnapping, let alone the kidnapping of a known gang leader, but anything was possible in this city. Perhaps the playboy finally grew a brain or had some old score to settle. Maybe he got all fucked up in the head after watching his parents die and all these years he'd managed to keep it secret from the public, only to go out at night and take revenge against the city that killed them. He wouldn't be the first rich Gotham socialite to be orphaned and feel the need for vengeance and Victor would be shocked if he was the last. 

Harvey snorted and started to drum his fingers along the arm of his chair. Fuck he'd kill for a smoke right now! "Christ to fuck, I hope I not." 

"What?" 

"We stopped talking after Roman got cut off from his parents." That would have been around 2005-2006ish. Christ, they were getting old. It was pathetic that it had taken Harvey this long to get back in touch with him. Fuck getting a smoke, the second Victor was out of his apartment Harvey was pouring himself a drink and going to spend the rest of the day in the bathtub!

"Why?"

"It's complicated-" Victor must have pieced Harvey's restless behavior together because he was reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of smokes. He offered one to Harvey, along with his lighter, and the lawyer stopped himself. Why the fuck was he still covering for these people? It wasn't like they were residents of Gotham anymore. They couldn't drown themselves in the ocean for all he cared! He snatched the smoke and lighter out of Victor's hand and was inhaling within seconds. He was still going to get hammered after the other man left. "They're sociopaths, that's why. Total fucking sociopaths and Roman had enough. That's why they cut him off."

Victor lit a smoke for himself, "I'm listening."

"He's going to kill me for telling you this but..." If Roman was really missing then the people looking for him were going to need to know everything that they could about the man including those who meant to cause him the most harm. Which, in this case, were Richard and Lorriane Sionis. "Roman was never anything more than a bargaining chip for them. A way of getting in with other socialites, a way of looking perfect in front of everybody, a way of keeping Janus Corp in the family-"

"But they didn't keep it in the family. They disowned him."

"Yeah," Harvey admitted but they were getting ahead of themselves. "But it got worse after he presented. Suddenly that alpha son Richard was banking on taking over wasn't going to happen and he decided to take matters into his own hands." Harvey took a long drag of his cigarette before adding, "He approached Bruce about it first. And Bruce gave him a vague answer, just to play it safe. Figured if Richard wasn't going to drop it then he and Roman could go through with it, just to get him to shut up."

"Go through with...He was trying to marry him off."

"Yeah."

"Did Bruce-"

"No. The only reason he kept his answer vague was in case Roman needed him but it was never anything romantic or sexual." It had been an escape plan, nothing more. All Roman had to do to put it into motion was send Bruce a message and suddenly Richard Sionis would be getting a call from the heir to Wayne Enterprises about thinking it over and deciding to go through with the engagement. They'd play their game, let Lorriane plot out the most fantastical wedding ever to be held in the city, and then they'd be done with them. There wouldn't be any family Christmas cards or vacations together, any grandchildren, the only time they would hear from them again would be regarding company matters which would come to a sudden end the moment Richard retired. But it never got to that point. Even if it maybe should have. Maybe it would have just been easier for everyone if Bruce had agreed to Richard's proposal in the first place. 

"What about you?" Victor couldn't help himself. "Did he ask you?"

"I didn't have a company to inherent so Richard wasn't interested in me." The wealth of the Dent family was enough for them to be seen as possible companions in the Sionis family's eyes but not worthy of marrying into. Richard wanted someone to run the company, someone with experience in the matter, not a family composed of lawyers. He could just hire a lawyer if he needed one, he didn't need a son-in-law to defend him in court. "The plan was for Roman to marry someone wealthy, someone with a company of their own that could be merged with Janus Corp in order to keep feeding the Sionis' luxurious lifestyle." Harvey snorted a laugh, "You can imagine how that went."

Victor didn't need to imagine. He knew exactly how that would go down. Roman didn't like to receive orders, he liked to give them. He _needed_ to be the one to give them. "Roman would never go for it."

"He didn't. Not with Bruce, not with any of the other guys they brought before him, not any of their single or recently widowed friends from the country club. So they got desperate." And desperate people do the stupidest things. "They tampered with his suppressants, tried to trigger a heat while a friend of theirs was staying over, and hoped that they could catch him off guard. Roman was able to piece together what was happening before they could get him in a vulnerable position and we came and picked him up. Ended up spending the next week sequestered in one of the guest rooms at Wayne Manor." 

"You're telling me that they-" Victor could feel his heartbeat stop inside his chest. "That's sexual assault-"

"Nothing happened-"

"Conspiracy to commit sexual assault then." Plotting to get someone who trusted you, who you were supposed to protect and care for with the best possible intentions, into an incredibly vulnerable position and then just throwing them to the wolves in hopes of forcing their hand, of forcing them into an agreement that they would have never gone for otherwise, with a person they had barely known. Victor hoped to god that it was someone Roman didn't know. Harvey said that the person Richard and Lorriane had picked out for him was a friend...that didn't clarify what the guy's age was at the time this plot was put into action. He could have been young, the son of family friends or some up and comer, or he could have been someone they'd known for years. Someone Roman had known since he was a kid. Victor puked in his mouth at the thought. 

Harvey sighed and took one last drag from his cigarette before extinguishing it in the ashtray set on his coffee table. "When Roman snapped out of it he demanded that we take him home. I wasn't there when he confronted his parents but we could hear them yelling from the car. They gave him an ultimatum: get married to this guy older than his own father and let nature run it's coarse or get out and be written out of the family estate." The old _my-way-or-the-high-way mentality_. "You know what he chose." Richard and Lorriane tried to pull the family card, tried to pull the inheritance card, but it didn't matter. A line had been crossed and there was no coming back from it. Roman adopted his infamous mantra; **_fuck family_**. "Within the month it was announced that Janus head office was relocating from Gotham to Los Angeles. Richard and Lorriane split but not before Roman was able to take a considerable chunk of change out of the family bank account. Enough to get The Black Mask Club and any other businesses of his up and running." 

"But Richard and Lorriane, they never faced any legal repercussions for what they did? Or the guy?" They couldn't have. If they had, it would have been on the first page of the news for months afterward. Victor definitely would have heard about it. 

It would seem that Harvey put out his smoke prematurely. He needed another drag to get though this. Without asking the DA reached over and plucked Victor's smoke from his fingers and took the long, deeply needed drag to build up his courage. "Right after it was over, I tried to speak with Roman, tried to reason with him. I told him that we needed to go to the police, we needed to file a report, but he wasn't having it." And why should he have? They both knew, even back then before they'd really gotten involved with the criminal justice system (on either side), that it could be bought and sold for the right price. What was to stop his parents from buying their way out of it, of escalating the situation when it had already been seemingly resolved? Roman had no reason to trust Gotham PD but Harvey... "I believe in justice. I believe that it will work out in the end but Roman didn't want to wait. He wanted action now and he thought that I was attempting to look the other way, to pretend it didn't happen. Bruce sided with me and...and that was it." 

"Christ..." Victor muttered. 

"A while ago, right after the story broke that he was going to have a baby, I thought about talking to him. I chickened out though. But then Bruce told me about meeting up with him, just talking, and I finally got the nerve." Better late than never, Harvey supposed. "I haven't spoken to either Richard or Lorriane in years, not since they left for LA but..."

That didn't matter. It didn't matter how long it had been since Harvey had spoken with the two of those bastards, the only thing that mattered now was finding them and bringing Roman home safe. No matter what it took. Victor extinguished his cigarette in the ashtray and asked, "You care about him still, right?" 

"Of course-" Even though it had been years, the two of them had history together. Harvey had known Roman since kindergarten, back before all of this came to a head, when Harvey was still a rowdy, energic kid who used to jump off the top of the swing set at school, and Roman was the sweet little kid who followed him everywhere and would drag him and Bruce to the nurse's office whenever they were unwilling to admit they were hurt. Fifteen years of friendship, and while they weren't on speaking terms for the longest time Harvey had never wanted to cut the other man out completely. He had been the closest thing to a little brother Harvey had ever had. 

"Then help me find him. Help me find him before they do something to him or the baby."

"What happens after we find them?"

Victor hesitated to answer. He knew exactly what he was going to do the moment he had whoever was bold enough to try and take his family away from him tied up somewhere and it didn't matter if they were Roman's parents, the Batman, or someone else he had wronged decades ago, his plan was not going to differ. Victor was not going to discriminate. He was going to make them regret every breath that they had ever taken that lead them to crossing paths with **_Victor motherfucking Zsasz_.** "...You specialize in prosecution right? How good are you at defense?" He asked, "Cause when I find them, I'm going to need it." 

That flash that Victor had seen earlier reappeared in Harvey's eyes and a wicked smirk spread across his face, "I think we can work something out." 


	15. Chapter 15

They completed the drive in silence. Roman had nothing more to say and Richard seemed to share that sentiment though Roman could see glimpses of his father in the car's rearview mirrors. Richard was grinning like the cat that caught the canary. He'd won but what he had won, the younger of the two Sionis men had yet to figure out. The car came to a stop and Richard got out and came around to haul Roman out of the car. The two men he'd been sandwiched between climbed out too and grabbed hold of the gang leader's arms to keep him from making a run for it. Like he'd actually be that stupid. He had no idea where he was, how far he was from anyone who could help him, and blocked by three large men if you included his father. Roman took the chance to get his bearings; they were standing in front of a manor house, nothing compared to the one he had grown up in and a more modern-style, far up from the road they'd taken to get there. Roman tried to get a glance down the driveway, just to see how far in they were, but his view was blocked by a row of oak trees. Richard started walking to the house and snapped his fingers; the two men holding onto Roman's arms followed after him and ushered the younger man inside. They passed through an elegant foyer and into a dining room where someone was waiting for them. At the head of the long, mahogany dinner table, sat a woman who jumped to her feet the second the men entered the room. "Roman, Darling!" She squealed and practically flew to his side, throwing her arms dramatically around Roman's shoulders."Oh, look at you! So handsome! As if there was ever going to be a doubt that you'd grow up to be such a strapping young man! You know what that is? Good genes!"

Richard signaled for the guards to leave and they let go of Roman's arms. He watched them leave, tried to zone himself out from the situation, but a sharp and precise smack to the back of his head forced him back into it. "Your mother said hello, Roman. Don't tell me you forgot all of your manners while you were away." 

"Hello, mother," Roman muttered under his breath but it was enough for the two of them to be sated. Richard nodded his approval. 

"Come! Come! Sit down! I bet you had a rather uncomfortable car ride! I know you always hated driving!" Lorriane insisted and guided her son over to the dinner table. She sat him down next to her on the left side before retaking her seat at the head of the table. Richard sat across from him. "Want something to drink? Something to eat?"

"I'm okay." 

Richard snorted, "We picked him up on the way back from MacDonald's. The boy doesn't need anything more to eat." 

"Oh hush!" Lorriane said and lightly smacked Richard's hand. The man just rolled his eyes. "It's just the cravings. I know our boy, I know he wouldn't dare put that overprocessed garbage into his body without good reason. Besides, eating it once won't hurt him. We'll just have to keep an eye on what he eats until the baby comes!" 

"What?" Roman asked. They couldn't possibly mean...

"Yes, well, I suppose we should address that elephant in the room first?" Richard asked with a dramatic sigh. He snapped his fingers and a servant came rushing into the room, carrying a wine bottle and two glasses. She moved quickly, cracking the seal on the wine and pouring the patriarch and matriarch of the Sionis family their drinks, and then fled from the room. If Roman had blinked, he would have missed the girl entirely. Richard took a sip while Lorriane squealed and clapped her hands together like an overly excited sea lion,

"Yes! Congratulations Roman! I am so proud of you! I knew you'd come around to having children eventually!"

"He spread his legs and let some brute cum inside of him, let's not give the boy a parade," Richard replied and set his now half-empty glass down on the table. Roman felt the color rush to his face and ducked his head to avoid either of them seeing his humiliation. It wasn't fair. He was a grown fucking man who had been on his own for years, and yet his father's snide remarks still cut him. Richard must have noticed this because he leaned back against his chair, folded his hands together in his lap, and continued. "Nonetheless, it is about time you fulfilled your duty to the Sionis family. Though it is...considerably unfortunate that the child is the product of some no-name thug. I guess it has to happen sometimes though. If you have a line of purebred dogs, at some point you're going to have to introduce a mutt just to avoid genetic complications."

"Did you just call my boyfriend a mutt?" Roman asked, not able to bring himself to lift his head quite yet. Suddenly he felt like a child again caught stealing sweets before dinner. He wanted to fight; wanted to just let out a primal scream and smash Richard and Lorriane's heads together but when he was finally able to look up again...he couldn't. All that strength, all that vigor died in the back of his throat, and Roman was ducking his head again just to avoid having to look at them. 

"Boyfriend!" Richard exclaimed shaking his head, "Oh, oh no. He isn't even married Lorriane..."

"Hush." Lorraine replied, "Look at it this way Richy, we don't have to worry about divorce papers or alimony!"

"A fair point. Thank you Lorriane for bringing that up." 

"I have no idea what either of you are talking about." Yes, he did. Subtlety was not something that Richard or Lorraine seemed to care for but Roman chose not to believe it. He chose to believe that this was just his parents attempting to pull a power move and put him on edge. It was far more pleasant than the terrifying reality. Roman pushed himself up to his feet. Fuck it, if he had to walk back to The Black Mask Club he would! "I'm leaving-"

Richard snapped his fingers and the two men who had picked Roman up from the street and sat between him in the car came rushing in. They grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him down, forcing him back into the chair. "Uh uh uh," Richard said, clicking his tongue. "Forcing you around isn't healthy when you have a baby to consider." He waved his hand and the two men were scurrying out of the room just like the servant had done. He had them trained like dogs, responding to his every beck and call, and fleeing the moment they were no longer useful to avoid having someone else called to deal with them. "There! Isn't that so much better?"

"Much better!" Lorriane answered for her son. "So, we have some matters to discuss. Have you learned of the child's gender or status yet?"

"No." Roman mumbled, quirking an eyebrow. What the fuck were they talking about now? "You can't learn of status until puberty, I thought-"

"Doesn't hurt to ask, does it?" Richard interjected then turned his attention fully to his wife, "Our first priority when we go speak with Dr. Burke will be finding out the child's gender. That way can proceed going forward, speak with the appropriate people-" 

"You know the McCoys? They own that broadcasting company in Pasadena? I heard their daughter just had a baby boy. Assuming it's a girl, it could be a possible match."

"I like the sound of that. We need to wait though, of course. We can't go promising them the baby until we know for certain that it's a girl or, at the very least, an omega-"

"Are you insane?!" Roman screamed. He already knew the answer to that but he had to say something, had to break up the pair planning his child's future while he just sat there like the third-wheel to the world's most fucked up family reunion! "No! No one is promising my baby to anyone!?"

"Roman, Roman, Roman," Richard said shaking his head, "I know that you were always headstrong but I never thought that you would be so...hazardous to your own child's future." "As heir to Janus Corp, we are just trying to provide the child with the best possible life. And that includes an appropriate match." Someone of a good family, a wealthy family, with connections that could be exploited in order to let the business flourish and bloom. "The last thing anyone wants is for this baby to end up alone, unmarried by thirty, whoring themselves out to gangbangers and goons...like you." 

"Yes, the last thing we want is for the child to be anything like you, Darling." Lorriane agreed, swirling her wine around in her glass. "At least regarding your love life."

"My love life is fine-"

"Hmm..." Lorriane hummed her disapproval and took a sip before replying, "Could have been better. A lot better actually. Why, if only you'd listened to us all those years ago, you could have been sitting poolside by now with a dozen children, instead of only now having your first." If only Roman could have seen the upside to their plans, it all would have been so perfect. All her insolent child had to say was yes and they'd have given him everything; a perfect wedding, a beautiful home instead of some crap-trap apartment above a shadey nightclub, more money than he would know what to do with, and a hoard of beautiful children to devote his days to. They'd have it all; five star vacations across the globe, the best privatized education anyone could afford where the children would be studying alongside royalty from various countries, any toys that their little hearts desired. "This is considered a late-pregnancy, isn't it? Geriatric." 

Richard polished off the last of his wine and added, "The last thing anybody wants is an old whore." The patriarch considered pouring himself a refill but given the way their conversation was going thought better of it. He'd save it for later, before bed, just to help him drift off. "Actually, there is something worse than an old whore and that's an old whore who's bad with money, who's bad with people, who is so vain that the only thing that matters to them is their physical appearance, and who cannot be trusted to take care of themself let alone a child which is why we brought you here."

He... _wasn't_ wrong. That was the worst part of it. Every single thing Richard spat from his mouth was based on some truth and Roman knew that. If he had been good with his money...he could have had a hundred clubs operating along the east coast by now. He definitely wasn't good with people. If he had been then maybe he wouldn't have had so many people leave him. His parents, Bruce, Harvey, just about every friend he'd ever had...who was to say that when they were old enough, the baby wouldn't leave him too? He couldn't make them stay, couldn't make them sacrifice their own desires and needs to stay with him when they needed to, but what happened if the kid grew up, hated Roman, and wanted nothing to do with him? What if this hatred for your parents was genetic? No! That was fucking stupid! What was he thinking?! Roman groaned and put his head in his hands feeling the beginnings of a migraine coming on. 

"You're unstable," Richard stated and gestured to his son's current state as evidence of that fact. "You know that. We know that. All of Gotham knows that." Every couple of weeks there was some new gossip story about one of Roman's infamous tantrums in the middle of The Black Mask Club. The damn business' _Yelp!_ page and google reviews were crawling with negative ratings and horror stories about the insane club owner going off on customers for no real reason. "CPS was going to take this baby away the second it was born, you know that. There was no way they'd let you take the baby home." 

"We want to spare them that," Lorraine added. 

"Did you know in the state of New Jersey, grandparents can file for custody of a child?" Richard asked. He should know. He had spent the days leading up to this reunion meeting with his attornies and researching America's custody laws and regulations. "The laws are the same in California too. We figured it would be easier this way. Spare CPS from getting involved and dragging your name, your club, through the mud, humiliating the family any further. I mean, what's this kid going to think when they grow up and see all those photos of you, hear all about your little escapades..." 

Quite the picture it would paint of their family, of where they came from. The child of a disowned, unstable, murdering gang leader. Roman's head was pounding and he could feel his stomach twisting up into knots. "I feel sick." He murmured and the next thing he knew his mother was at his side, guiding him up to his feet. "Oh Darling! Oh no!" She cooed. "Come, I'll take you to your rooms. Let you lay down and sleep for a bit." 

Roman was in no position to fight and, even if he had been, he was lacking the energy to so much as complain. He let his mother guide him along out of the room and further into the manor while Richard stayed behind and set about pouring himself that refill he had been craving. When his wife reappeared a couple of minutes later, he offered her the bottle to the woman to top herself off. She accepted and, putting aside all her lessons on wine etiquette, filled her glass to the brim and downed more than half during her first sip. Richard happily obliged in doing the same. "He really is such a handsome boy, isn't he Richy? Such a waste." Lorraine said with a sigh, "...You know, some more gentle nudging and perhaps we could alter the course? We could find him someone presentable. It shouldn't be that hard-"

"You know we can't do that." Richard reminded her. Legally, if they were going to get away with this, they needed to stick to their original plan. They needed to follow it exactly or else the courts could poke holes in their petition. "If we want to file for custody, we need to be the parents of the child's deceased parent. Besides, the boy is a lost cause." What they needed was a fresh slate, someone they could move and mold to fit what they needed in order to bring the company to new heights. Someone who could they could shape and fix from the moment they entered the world, someone who wasn't broken like Roman. "It's high time we shift gears and look towards the future of Janus Corp." 


	16. Chapter 16

A couple of days ago Dinah and Helena had left to travel up to Midway City to help out a recent contact with a minor problem. Renee would have gone with them but their contact had asked for the two women by name, citing it as a smaller job that did not require their full arsenal, so the former cop opted instead to linger around their recently acquired place and do a bit of training. Under over circumstances, Renee may have been concerned for her companions but given who they were, what they were capable of, she felt secure in the knowledge that the other two could take care of themselves. So, in a way, this was like a little vacation for her. Renee trained, enjoyed some of Dinah's bath bombs, ordered take-out at some of her favorite restaurants, and, her favorite activity, day-drinking. On this particular morning, however, when Renee went to the fridge she grabbed herself the carton of milk to fill her mug instead of the bottle of Jack she had stowed away in the back. She was in the middle of pouring herself that glass when her phone started to ring. Renee finished up, quickly stowed the milk back in the fridge, and raced to answer it, "Hello?"

"Heya Super-Cop! How ya been?" An overly cheerful voice, tinted with a heavy accent, called out over the line. 

"Harleen Quinzel," Renee would know that voice anywhere. You didn't go absolutely ape-shit, mowing down countless goons inside a crumbling funhouse in the middle of the night in a desperate attempt to protect a teenage girl, and not get to know the people that you were fighting alongside. Only for a few of those people to completely betray you, still your other companion's car, and drive off into the sunset leaving you stranded at a taco restaurant. "You got a lot of nerve calling me after what you did-"

"Nerve is the one thing I got." Okay, so nerve, killer clothes, a plethora of weapons, a kick-ass partner/ward, and the sweetest damn hyena under the sun, but Renee was not looking for an itemized list right now. "But that's not why I'm calling you. I need your help. Nobody knows the Sionis family like you."

"This has something to do with Roman?" Of course, it fucking did. Could that man not stay out of trouble for, like, two weeks?! "What's he up to now?" 

"He's been kidnapped. I'm trying to figure out who may have wanted to do the job."

"That's a long list of people." Far too long to go into detail and list off every single person who had a valid reason to hurt him. Not nearly as long as the list of people who had wanted to gut Harley the second she made her break up with the Joker well known, but enough that it could be potentially challenging trying to track him down. But that wasn't what stuck out to the former police officer. It was the context that caught her attention. "Since when have you and Roman become friends?"

"Frenemies." Harley corrected her. "Since he found out he was going to have a baby, roughly."

"Have a bab-" Montoya couldn't finish that thought without immediately regretting her decision to go for the milk instead of the whiskey. "Fucking Christ..."

"Yeah, so you can understand the stress I'm under to find him." 

"Well, to start off, you have his rival crime lords. That's about thirty people," And that was Montoya low-balling it. In reality, any person who had ever done business with the man had the motivation to kill him with the only exception being his loyal, face-peeling assassin. "Or it could be an ex. Roman has a lot of those too." Possibly more than the former business partners. Back in the day, Roman liked to party, and it was bound to come back and bite him in the ass sooner or later. "Has he been worried about anything or anyone lately?" 

"No," Harley answered. "Not since that nurse leaked his information." 

"Huh." Harley's phone dinged with a text message notification. "Hang on a second," She told the cop and brought up the text up. It was from Victor. He must have finished up with his lawyer. _Are you speaking with the cop? Ask her what she knows about Richard and Lorraine Sionis_. Harley hated to say I told you so but hadn't she called Roman having daddy issues a couple of months back? People really needed to listen to her more often. She left Zsasz on read and returned to the call, "What about his parents? What do you know about them?"

"There was an ongoing investigation into Richard Sionis years ago. Money laundering, tax evasion, white-collar crimes," The typical millionaire crimes that people thought they could just buy their way out of if they ever came to light. Fuck, the Sionis family had been involved with that particular brand of crime since they immigrated to the United States centuries ago."None of it was ever proven, however. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"Do they have any property still in Gotham? Any places they could hold up?" 

"You think his parents are behind this?" Renee asked. It had been a while since she'd poured herself over the Sionis family files but... "If I remember correctly they owned this compound on the outskirts of Gotham. Supposed to be part of this gated community but the project folded after the first house was built. Always got a weird feeling about that." 

"You think Richard strong-handled them or something?" 

"Possibly." Before she had been chasing after Roman, trying to bust him and throw him behind bars, Montoya had been running around after Richard. Roman had inherited his father's problem with the most stubborn, most capable cop to ever grace the Gotham PD after the old man ran to the hills, and that was the only thing he had given his son, other than his name and his DNA. "I wouldn't put it past him. You know how many omegas tried to take him to court for sexual harassment? They always settled out of court." 

Harley channeled Roman for a moment, scrunched her nose up, and went, "Ew."

"So I guess you're going to head up and scope the place out," That was the polite way of saying it. Montoya knew for a fact that wasn't how this was going to go down. They were all going to go charging forward, guns blazing, and leave with a handful of bodies lying in their wake. Harley Quinn had never been one to scope. "You need some back-up? I can get the girls to come lend you a hand."

"Appreciate the offer but I don't think that's the best idea," Harley replied. "Dinah. Roman. Lotta bad blood." 

"You're right." Renee agreed. Even if she were to just approach the girls about his disappearance, mention it in passing, she knew that Dinah was immediately going to shoot the offer down. Bringing up the baby, Dinah likely wasn't going to want to be involved. She may express some sympathy towards the situation (though even that was a stretch after how shitty Roman and Zsasz had been to work with) but it would be a cold day in Hell before Dinah hauled her ass back to Gotham for those assholes. "How's Cass doing?"

"She's doing great." Somehow Harley had convinced her to go back to school in the fall, even with their business still running, and she seemed to be happy. If she wasn't, she never alerted her new guardian to otherwise. After losing her place over Doc's, Harley had even found themselves a better place to crash at, one where Cass had her own bedroom and wasn't going to be crashing on her couch every night! That was already a step up in the world. "And you guys?" 

"Couldn't be better," And she could say that without lying. It had truly been the lifestyle change that they needed to feel truly alive again, to become really, genuinely happy again. For the first time in years they were all free to do as they pleased, go where they pleased, without looking over their shoulders or feeling the constant need to show another person up. It felt like centuries of stress had been lifted from their collective shoulders. They had their own place now where they could carve out their own identities, where they were in control, and they had all finally succeeded in getting out of that shit-hole excuse for a city. "Helena and Dinah are adjusting well to the vigilante lifestyle. We relocated to Blüdhaven a couple of weeks ago, after getting into one too many territorial disputes with the Batman." 

Harley couldn't help but snort and roll her eyes, "Fucking Batman." She got it. He had that whole "I work alone" thing but was it really worth the time and the energy to be getting into disputes with other crime fighters? The very notion was forming a strange picture in her mind of Batman and the Birds of Prey aggressively snapping their fingers at each other ala West Side Story as they built up to an actual fight. See, now, if that was how they handled their territory problems-

Her phone dinged again and she checked the notification. It was another message from Zsasz. Damn, this guy was just as impatient as Roman wasn't he? _Harley? How'd it go?_ Well, she had something that she could get back to him about. She had a lead and that was a start (and in all honesty, Harley strongly believed that they would find the Sionis family there. These old-money-type villains were all so boring, all the same, they never thought to switch up their hideaway locations). She returned to the call, "I gotta go. Thanks for the information. I'll find a way to pay you back." 

"Good luck you crazy bitch," Renee said and Harley could practically see the smirk spreading across her face. While she may never be able to get over the ex.cop for what she did to her beloved sandwich, it could not be denied that Renee Montoya was a certified badass. Harley ended the call and brought up the messages between her and Victor to fill him in on what she'd learned. _The Sionis family has a compound on the outskirts of Gotham. Nice and isolated. Perfect place to stash somebody without alerting the whole wide world. You want to go now? How'd your meeting with the law go?_

Victor got back to her in a matter of seconds. _I want to go. Grab some gear and meet me back outside the club. Leave the kid, don't want her getting in over her head._

 _Aww. You're already thinking like a daddy, all concerned over the children ;P_ Harley texted back. 

The man's response was almost instantaneous. _Don't call me that. And don't worry about it, I have a plan._

_That doesn't exactly reassure me, Zsaszy_. 


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JUST A HEADS UP: There's a little bit of violence about midway through the chapter there. It's going to be nothing compared to what's coming next, which I'm going to try and not be too graphic about (you know) but I'm still giving a heads up. Both now and then just to be safe. Enjoy! :D

The first thing Roman noticed when he opened his eyes was that the ceiling was different. In his bedroom, the ceiling had been painted red to better fit with his decorum, but here it was eggshell white. So plain, so basic, so boring. Roman squinted his eyes as he tried to figure out what had caused the change, wondering if his eyes were just playing a trick on him, but then he remembered where he was and it felt like he had been side-swept by a semi-truck. After so many years away from this place, away from his parents, they had found a way to sink their claws into him and had dragged him back. He sat up, cast a quick glance behind him at the locked window behind the bed, and deeming that a lost cause, approached the bedroom door. As he had anticipated, they'd locked it but it was still worth a shot. Maybe it was naive of him but he'd had the tiniest sliver of hope that they were too drunk to remember that he would be waking up at some point. Roman cursed under his breath and then turned his attention to the attached bathroom. As luck would have it, they had remembered to lock the door connecting it to the hallway too. Fucking assholes! They really were going to leave him cooped up here until he popped, weren't they? Roman cursed, though this time he didn't extend them the courtesy of being quiet about it, and kicked at the door. It didn't budge so he kept kicking at it, slamming his fists against the wood until his hands were throbbing and he couldn't do it anymore. His exhaustion hit him hard and Roman slid down onto the floor and leaned back against the door. Fucking hell. 

...Would they bother to send him some food, something to drink? Would they bring a doctor in to check in on him? They could afford to. They could afford to hire one of their doctor friends to come in and make sure that the baby was okay, but would they extend that courtesy to him? And what about his baby? Knowing them, the doctor they managed to get a hold of wasn't going to be the most capable. So many things could go wrong in such a quick period of time...as much as Roman hated doctors, this was exactly why he had been looking into a private hospital with the best possible staff and every resource possible to keep things running smoothly. Not to mention Victor. While Roman was taking enough drugs to keep him from ripping out some poor nurse's throat, he was going to charge the other man with overlooking everything, making sure that both he and the baby weren't being mishandled. What was he supposed to do now? Just lay there, grit his teeth, and hope for the best. 

Roman dried his eyes on his arm. The more he thought about it, the more he just wanted to curl up and die, and it wasn't doing him any favors in the not-crying department. This all felt like deja vu; locked up in his parents' house, crying on the bathroom floor. How pathetic. He choked back the most pathetic little sniffle and looked up at the ceiling to try and force the tears back. "I'm sorry about all of this." He said. It wasn't the first time he talked to his child and he was well aware that they couldn't answer back, couldn't offer him the comfort he would have gotten if he had been talking to Victor, but he had to say it. He had to apologize for getting his only child into this mess. "It's not your fault. Any of this, you just happen to be being born into the world's most fucked up family. And I'm not just talking about them."

His parents hadn't been wrong when they described him as unstable and Roman knew that. He was fucked up but he was functioning and, going into this, Roman had known that he could have done a better job at parenting than his own. For one thing, his kid wouldn't ever be forced into friendships, forced into relationships, just because it benefitted him. His kid wouldn't be raised to believe that they were set to inherit both the criminal empire and legitimate businesses that Roman had developed, only for them to be yanked out from under them. Roman had been planning, figuring out ways to give this kid the best opportunities, help them succeed in whatever way they desired. If they had wanted to be an artist, Roman would have funded them, helped them get into the best art classes and programs; if they liked space and saw a future there, he would have happily taken them to the Gotham Planetarium and sent them to one of Nasa's space camps; and if they had wanted it, after they were old enough to know what that meant, Roman would have prepared them to take over The Black Mask Club and his other operations. Whatever they had wanted to do, Roman would have stood behind them but maybe that had just been more hopeful thinking on his part. "I want to do better for you. You don't deserve this." Roman wiped at his eyes again and felt a couple of tears roll down his cheeks. "I know you can't hear me but it's not like I can talk to anybody else about this-"

Something shifted. Roman went completely still. Had that really happened? Had he really felt that? A couple of seconds passed and he felt it again, the tiniest movement. "Oh!" He wrapped his arms around his abdomen as he felt it for the third time. It wasn't a kick, not yet, but it was definitely moving. "Holy shit! Holy shit..." Suddenly all the tears were gone and all Roman could think about was getting the fuck out of this place as quickly as possible. What the fuck was crying in the bathroom going to do to solve anything? He was _**Roman Beauvais Fucking Sionis**_ and he was not going to take this laying down! He was the **_fucking Black Mask_** and by the time this was all over, he was going to be standing knee-deep in those bastards' blood! 

"Okay then, message received, gonna try and calm down." Calm down and think of a way out of here. His parents may have been able to get the upper hand on him right now but they were still a couple of drunk degenerates. They couldn't have possibly thought of everything. Roman's eyes locked onto the vanity and he got an idea. Roman crawled over and started to root through the drawers; if his parents had been expecting him to last until October with such limited supplies than they were stupider than their son gave them credit for. A couple of towels, one extra bar of soap, shampoo, and conditioner was what they had left for him unless they had been planning on topping him off if they ever stopped in for a quick check-up. No razors though. So they were smart enough to know that Roman would have slit their fucking throats if they had forgotten to remove them. There was one thing they had overlooked though, hidden away underneath some handtowels, that Roman had been hoping for; a steel triple cut nail file. Now, when it came to attacking someone with everyday objects found lying around your place, the nail file would not be as effective as a pair of scissors or razors, but it was long and thin with a short edge that made it perfect for picking through window locks. "Fuck yeah!" 

* * *

As far as afternoons went, Lorraine Sionis had a fairly set routine that she had been following for the last twenty years and was at this point loathe to break; after breakfast, she would return to her and Richard's room while he went down to the parlor to do whatever he felt like that particular day, and Lorraine would spend the next couple of hours nursing a bottle of wine. Once the bottle was empty, Lorraine would stagger back downstairs to join her husband and busy herself with her needlework while Richard bitched about everything under the sun. She had learned long ago that the only way Richard was tolerable was if you were more than a little hammered. As an unfortunate side effect, her needlework was suffering as Lorraine struggled to keep her hands steady, but it was a burden she was willing to endure if that made her husband a little less of a bastard. Lorraine was in the middle of threading her needle when she heard a loud thud coming from the foyer. The woman sat up at full alert. "What was that?" 

Richard didn't even bother to look up from his laptop. "Nothing, Lorraine. It's just the house settling." 

It wouldn't be the first time Lorraine had been hearing things. She forced herself to relax and stuck her tongue out as she tried to resume work on getting her needle threaded. There was another thud from the foyer, this time catching the woman off guard and causing her to lightly pierce her finger. Lorraine hissed and wrapped her lips around the cut, sending a glare in her husband's direction and snarling out, "Are you telling me you don't hear that?"

Richard sighed dramatically and slammed his book shut, "If you're that concerned, I'll send the guys to check it out." He snapped his fingers and waited. No one appeared. "Huh." He mumbled and tried again, only to get the same results, so he tried again and again and again. This was certainly unusual. He had his servants and his guards trained like dogs to respond to the simple command. It didn't matter how big the house was, or how far apart the man was from them, he snapped his fingers and someone would hear it and come running to spare themselves the pain of dealing with a pissed off Sionis patriarch. They knew that if they didn't, they would be in for a world of pain and suffering. Sometimes it would be a small enough punishment, the loss of a finger or toe, and sometimes it would be something a little more intense, an old maid Richard had hired some years back and who hadn't jumped when he snapped his fingers was still searching for her daughter (not that she'd ever find the girl. Richard had gotten Rocco to give her a pair of cement shoes and take her for a swim in Gotham harbor). His workers knew what the snap meant and the fact that they weren't scrambling in now was astounding. 

After watching her husband snap his fingers nearly fifteen times rapid-fire Lorraine could not take it anymore. "Richy, stop it, you look like a jackass!" She snapped. 

"Fuck off." Richard barked in return but his wife did have a point. The man pushed himself out of the plush chair he had been occupying to his feet and started to stroll out of the parlor and towards the foyer, but not before offering his wife one last comment, "Good help is so hard to find nowadays. Fucking millennials." He really didn't understand why his wife had been so fond of hiring them. Oh, wait. Yes, he did. She liked to ogle them while they worked and lose herself in the fantasy of being young and beautiful again, a fact that Richard loved to bring up whenever he was getting into it with the woman. Lorraine just waved him off. 

"Dev!" Richard shouted out as he walked through the manor towards the foyer. "Rocco!" Those two were his most loyal guards, the only ones who were able to move through the Sionis estate without fear of reprisal by the Sionis family patriarch. If there was something going on in the foyer and Lorraine just wasn't hearing things, odds were it was one of them. Or maybe both. There was a lot of testosterone between the two men and they liked to spar together in the gardens. Richard could see them forgetting to take it outside after getting into a tiff. Richard rounded the corner into the foyer and skidded forward, his slippers catching something wet on the floor. "What the fuck-" Richard looked down to see what he had stepped in and winced when he saw that it was blood. "Boys, you better have a good explanation for this shit-" 

"Hiya!" An overly cheerful voice called out and Richard spun around to see a young woman wearing a sequin fanny-pack and carrying a baseball bat step out from one of his statues. She was a dreadful-looking thing who looked like a hybrid mix between a clown, a hooker, and a homeless person. Richard winced at the very sight of her. "Richard Sionis I presume?" The woman asked and before Richard could even respond, she swung her bat forward and knocked him square in the face. There was a snap, and Richard went down like a sack of potatoes, a couple of teeth flying out of his mouth, and his nose twisted in the most unnatural of ways. Harley stepped further out from her hiding place to admire her handiwork. From his own hiding spot behind the bookcase, Victor strolled out to look for himself. He let out a low whistle, 

"Nice swing. Good follow through." 

"Ain't you sweet," Harley replied with a smile. It wasn't a bad hit or a bad swing in the slightest, but after taking out the two big goons guarding the door, Richard had been kind of a letdown. What was with these gangsters and not being able to put up much of a fight? Well, guess that was why goons were a service. She unzipped her fanny-pack and pulled out a couple of zip-ties, a few of which she surrendered to Victor for his own use, and then offered him her bat. "Here. I'll tie him up, you go get Mummy-dearest." 

Victor had used one of his knives to dismantle the guards. It was a pity he didn't get to carve their faces but this wasn't about exacting revenge against them, it was about getting Roman back and making the Sionis family pay. Victor hesitated but ended up taking Harley's bat from her. It had been a long time since he'd used a wooden baseball bat as a weapon, even longer since he had used it for its intended purpose, but there were some things you never forgot. Victor offered the girl a nod as a thank you and started walking back the way Richard had came. He moved slowly, not wanting to alert the woman to his presence, and luck was on his side. Lorraine had taken up lounging in a chair that had it's back to the doorframe. The floorboards creaked beneath Victor's feet but Lorraine didn't stir. "Did you take care of it Richy?" She called back over her shoulder. 

"It's been taken care of," Victor replied and when Lorraine spun around to face the intruder, the man couldn't help himself. He offered the woman a wild grin. "Hi Mom!" He exclaimed and took the swing. It hit, knocking both Lorraine and the chair she was sitting to the floor, and Victor quickly set to work using the zip-ties Harley had given him to secure the woman's wrists and ankles. Odds were she wasn't going to be regaining consciousness for some time but it was better to be safe than sorry. Once he was done, Victor grabbed the woman by her wrist and dragged her along back into the foyer to join her husband. Harley let out a loud cheer when she saw him coming back victorious and her joy must have been infectious because Victor raised the bat in triumph. 

"Quite a haul you got here," She said. "Lots of faces coming off tonight!"

"No." Victor told her and offered the girl her bat back. Harley happily accepted it and produced a chocolate bar from her fanny-pack. She snapped it in half and offered some to Victor which he eagerly accepted in return; it was white chocolate, his favorite. "No, they don't deserve that." The face peeling was something reserved for the usual goons and thugs who pissed Roman off, something special needed to be reserved for these two monsters. Something that Victor had been thinking about from the moment it clicked inside of his mind that the love of his life was missing. "I got something special planned for the two of them but first..."Victor popped his piece of the chocolate bar into his mouth and disappeared back into the parlor. He reemerged a couple of seconds later, Richard Sionis' laptop underneath his arm. 

"What's that for?" Harley asked. 

"All part of the plan." 

"You and your plan," The clown replied with an eye-roll but it did give her an idea. "Think Romy will mind if I do a little looting?" 

That was a difficult question to answer. On the one hand, Roman was notorious for being possessive of what was perceived as his but then again everything in this house wasn't his, it was his parents', and there was a significantly high chance that Roman would be willing to burn the entire place to the ground the second he was able to. In which case, there was hardly any harm in letting Harley pick through the place. "Wait for us to find him first," Victor settled upon and gestured for her to follow. "Come on."

The Sionis family estate may have been big but between the two of them, Victor and Harley could cover the entire manor in a matter of minutes. Victor took the left, Harley took the right, shouting the man's name and listening for any reply, searching for any sign of movement. When the first floor came back empty, they moved upstairs to do the same, all the while calling out for him. At the end of the hall, Victor stumbled upon the first locked door he had encountered during the entire search and kicked at the wood paneling, "Roman? Boss? Baby?" 

A very familiar voice, one that Victor would know anywhere, rang out not from behind the door but from downstairs, "You gotta be kidding me!" 

"Roman!" Victor shouted and doubled back with Harley hot on his heels. They made their way back downstairs, both nearly tripping over Richard and Lorraine, before skidding to a halt. There, leaning against the front door with his arms crossed in front of his chest, was Roman Sionis alive and well, albeit in need of a shower and a change of clothes. 

Roman snorted a laugh, "And after I go through all the trouble of breaking the window and climbing down, you guys just bust on in." He joked. Really, if Victor and Harley were just going to come barging in, all nice and ready to save him, what was the point of him making any effort to escape on his own? And it had not been easy getting down off the roof, mind you! Imagine the look on his face where, after struggling for what seemed like an eternity to get down in a way that wouldn't hurt, and jumping the fence separating the back gardens from the driveway, Roman saw his own Rolls-Royce parked in the fucking driveway! The man had just managed to escape from the fucking house and he was circling back, waltzing right in the front door to collect his idiots. Well, there was some humor to be found in the situation at the very least. Roman now knew what to do if he ever found himself locked in another bathroom (assuming he had a nail file). His gaze landed upon the two crumpled forms of his parents lying in pools of their own blood and teeth. The gang leader chuckled, "Oh, wow, you really did a number on them didn't you?"

Victor raced forward and wrapped his arms around Roman, pulling him close and burying his face into the crook of Roman's neck. "Fuck, I was so worried!" He admitted, not giving a shit about how broken his voice sounded, or how his arms were shaking as he held onto his boyfriend. He had known that he was going to get Roman back or die trying, but there had always been the possibility (as slim as it had been) that Roman wouldn't be coming back to him. Not to mention that Victor had failed him. Roman needed him to protect him, to take care of him, and he hadn't been able to keep him safe from the people who harmed him the most. Victor tightened his grip around the other man at the slew of thoughts. 

"I'm okay," Roman said softly and leaned in to press a kiss to Victor's forehead. It didn't do much to stop him from shaking so Roman decided to keep doing it, to press as many kisses to Victor's face as he could while murmuring quietly. "Shush, I'm okay baby." A little shaken but it was nothing that he couldn't bounce back from with a little time and affection. "Actually, I got something to show you. Give me your hand." 

Roman didn't wait for Victor to comply. Gently, he took hold of the other man's hand and laid it flat against his stomach. After a couple of seconds, Victor's eyes lit up and the shaking stopped. "Oh shit! They moved!" He exclaimed. 

"Can I feel?" Harley asked and Roman couldn't see a reason as to why not? Anyone willing to smash his parents' faces in with a baseball bat had earned the right to feel his child move. He nodded his head and Harley dashed forward, laying her hand flat next to Victor and grinning when she felt it too, "See? I told ya they were just being an asshole. You guys need to listen to me more!" 

Eh, maybe they did but like fuck either of them was ever going to admit that out loud. Victor noticed Roman's eyes still locked on his parents still bodies on the floor and remembered that they weren't done yet. They wouldn't be done until Richard and Lorraine were dead. "Do you want to hold off dealing with them Boss?" He asked. "We could wait if you wanted to."

"No," Roman answered. "Let's do this now. I want to be able to enjoy my time with you and this baby without worrying about them stepping in again." His child deserved a life far away from those monsters and Roman was going to make sure that they got it, that they never had the unfortunate chance to meet their grandparents. It was high time to cut off a couple of branches from the Sionis family tree. 


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JUST A HEADS UP; You know it was coming. Richard and Lorraine Sionis get what's coming to them. So, yeah, just a warning, and we're back to the domesticity next time! Enjoy!

When Richard came to he was hanging by his ankles, suspended upside down from a metal support beam in the middle of some warehouse, his wife hanging next to him in the exact same position. Lorraine's face and hair were caked with dried blood and a rag had been used as a makeshift gag to keep her from calling for help when she finally opened her eyes again. Richard had a similar one in his own mouth and, though he couldn't see it, he suspected he was in an equally worse state. His head was throbbing, his blood was beginning to rush, and Richard was growing increasingly aware via his central vision that his nose was completely misshapen. Voices were ringing out, echoing around the warehouse, but Richard could not pin-point where it was coming from or who was talking, "-That is so gross and so, so awesome-" 

"-This one is a bit of a hack job actually-" A male voice responded and Richard knew for a fact that he had never heard it before. 

"-You should see his clean cuts." Another voice cut in and this was one that Richard was more than a little familiar with. "-They're a fucking work of art-!" Beside him, Lorraine out a low, guttural groan, and the conversation came to a grinding halt. Roman walked around from behind the hanging couple, followed by the clown who had knocked them out at the house, and some man that Richard had never seen before, and eagerly clapped his hands together. "Oh look, they're awake!"

"Hello Mummy! Hello Daddy!" Roman practically squealed in a way that had his own mother wincing. The omega was grinning from ear to ear, his eyes wild as he looked between his two prisoners. "Oh, how terribly rude of me. I didn't get the chance to introduce you yet!" He scrambled back and threw his arm around the clown girl's shoulders, "This is Harley Quinn, the Cady Heron to my Regina George!" Richard's eyes widened in alarm; even on the other side of the country, he had heard enough through the grapevine to know that this woman, the Joker's ex.girlfriend, was chaos incarnate. And here she was, his son's arm around his shoulders as if they were the best of friends. Roman gave her a gentle squeeze and then redirected his attention to the man at his side, "And this is Victor. He's the guy who got me pregnant! Coincidently he's also the guy who just cut your bodyguards' faces off!" 

Richard bit down on his tongue to keep back his screams but Lorraine did not have that same foresight. Her muffled screams echoed around the warehouse and, if it were humanly possible, Roman's toothy grin grew even further. He strode forward and lowered the gag from the woman's mouth, "What was that? Couldn't hear you."

"You sick bastard! You let me go right the fuck now Roman!" Lorraine shouted and thrashed against her restraints. She spotted something shiny out of the corner of her eye; something that was currently hanging proudly around Harley Quinn's neck. "Is that my diamond locket?" She screamed, even louder than her furious pleas to be freed, "I am your damn mother-!"

The man Roman had introduced as Victor passed something to the Omega but Richard hadn't been able to get a good look at what it was. Not until he heard the click and, out of the corner of his eye, saw Roman press the muzzle of a handgun directly in the center of Lorraine's forehead. "Not much of a mother."

"You don't have the stones-" Lorraine never got to finish that thought. Roman pulled the trigger and with a thundering bang she, and most of her face, were blown away. Richard flinched and tried to wriggle himself away from his wife's hanging corpse to no avail while his son let out a contented sigh. 

"...That felt good." He admitted and returned the handgun to Victor. He caught sight of a couple of flecks of blood on the sleeve of his hoodie and scowled, "Ew. Anybody got a towel?" 

"I got some napkins," Harley answered, unzipped the pocket of her fanny-pack, and pulled a couple of cheap fast food napkins from inside. "Come here doll." 

With the gun still in hand Victor gestured over towards Richard, "Do you want to do the same with...?"

"Actually, sweetheart, I wanted to see how you handle it." Roman stated. "I'm going to give you full creative control over the matter." For once it wouldn't be just a matter of face-peeling and throat-slitting, it was time for the alpha to show his creative side when it came to methods of torture and murder. The sky was the limit and Roman wanted to see just what his beloved assassin was capable of when given free-range. Even if Roman seriously doubted his own ability to withstand watching the suffering unfold. "In the meantime, I'm fucking starving. Harley, you mind taking me to get food, and then we'll swing back here, pick Victor up?"

"You paying?" Harley asked and when Roman nodded his confirmation her face lit up like a child on Christmas morning. "Let's go then!" 

A smirk formed on Victor's face and he leaned in to press a quick kiss to Roman's lips, "You're the greatest." 

"Hmm," Roman certainly didn't see anything wrong with that statement. He pressed a quick kiss to Victor's cheek in return then turned heel and followed Harley outside, offering the others one last elegant wave of his hand and calling back over his shoulder, "Have fun!" 

Victor watched them leave and knelt down so he was closer to Richard's level. "Take one last good look at him Old Man 'cause you're never going to see him again," He couldn't help but taunt the bastard and, taking his knife, sliced the smallest line across the man's face; giving him a taste of what was to come. For the first time in a long time, Victor was acting without his employer's limitations and you could be he was going to enjoy every single moment of it. "Oh. And by the way. He calls me Daddy too." 

* * *

After getting off the phone with Harley, Renee had spent the rest of the day enjoying herself and indulging in a bit of self-care. Somehow she had managed to ignore her desire to drink, even after her unexpected chat with the clown, opting instead for an ice cream sundae and a good, long bubble-bath, followed by a nap, and some browsing on Amazon, just to check in and see if there were any deals on a Nintendo Switch. Around five, Renee pulled up her Door Dash app and started to scroll through it to figure out where she was going to order dinner from. She had narrowed the search down to either The Cheesecake Factory or Subway when her phone started to vibrate and she got the notification for an incoming call from an unknown number. Probably Harley again. Renee rolled her eyes but nonetheless answered, "Hello?" 

"Hello, Montoya." A voice that was definitely not Harley's greeted her. "It's been a while. I trust that you're doing well." 

Renee Montoya knew that voice well. She had spent years, the final years of her career with the Gotham police department, trying to send the person who owned it behind bars. "Quite." She replied cooly. The bastard may have been intimidating in person but over the phone, he was just another rich, entitled asshole. "I take it this means you're back home safe and sound."

"That I am," said Roman. "Thanks to you, partially. And for that, I thought I would send you a little thank you present."

Now, this was something that put the former cop on edge. With someone like Roman Sionis, a complete and total narcissist, a present could be anything. Something genuine, something flashy and expensive that had caught his eye but he had been unable to find a use for, a threat, a bomb, his "presents ran the gauntlet". It all depended on whatever mood the man was in when he decided to send them out. "What are you talking about?" She asked. 

"You should be receiving a package later today. Take a look for yourself, do what you want with it, but just so you know, if you decide not to move forward or do anything with the information we have another person ready to go forward to present it to the police." The gang leader explained. "Whether or not you have anything to prove, we thought that you may enjoy being the one to finally get the credit." 

"Credit for what?" 

"You'll see when you get the package." The line went silent for a couple of seconds and Renee thought that he may have hung up but then Roman spoke again, softer than before, and Renee's fears about his present for her being a bomb were slightly dimensioned. "Thank you, Montoya." He added and then the line went dead. 

* * *

"Well," Victor asked after Roman ended his call to the former detective and set his phone back on the bedside table, taking the opportunity to snuggle even closer and nuzzle into his side, "How'd it go?"

"I think it went really well," Roman replied and leaned down to press a kiss to the top of Victor's head. "Even if she doesn't go through with it, we can send it along anonymously to the police and just watch the drama unfold on tv." 

"Your boy Harvey assures me that if the information breaks, the DA's office will prosecute." If there was one thing that they could count on living in such a bloodthirsty city such as Gotham, it was that when someone was caught, especially if their activities revolved around white-collar crimes, that the people would be out for blood. The crimes of the Riddler, Bane, Poison Ivy, they were like a freak show; something to sit back, watch, and try to distance yourself from but the crimes of the wealthy elite who thought they could play the masses for a bunch of suckers, well, the public would want their severed heads on display outside the justice building. Richard Sionis was no different and once Gotham PD's forensic accountant got through with the files on the Sionis family patriarch's laptop he was going to be butchered far worse than anything Victor had done to him. "Regardless of the...state your father is in." 

"What did you end up doing to him?"

"Death was too merciful." A world of pain that was unimaginable until it ended in an instance. No, that quick end was far too kind for the man so Victor had taken the liberty of extending his suffering. "So I opted, instead, to make sure he could never come near you again. I took a page from Harley and stomped on his arms and legs until the bones were completely shattered. It will be a miracle if he is ever able to use his limbs again." Richard wouldn't walk again. Richard wouldn't have use of his arms again. He would be unable to use a wheelchair, to snap his fingers and order the people in his life around like dogs, to raise a hand in anger. He would spend the rest of his life, at least another thirty years, confined to a bed under the care of a nurse. "And then I gouged out his eyes so he can never see you again," Even if Richard was able to get someone to carry out his dirty work for him, he would be unable to see them, unable to provide them with the necessary information to have his efforts be successful. Victor had been careful going about the eyes. He wanted to make sure that the last thing Richard had seen before his world went permanently dark was his wife's lifeless, faceless body out of the corner of his eye, and his son's back as he left him to die. "And finally I cut out his tongue." Victor had left it until the end, just so he could enjoy the sound of the man's screams, but it was necessary. This way Richard was unable to let anyone else know what had happened, who had done this to him, and he truly could not do anything other than lay there and watch the world move around him without being able to engage in it and every day, until the day that he died, Richard would be unable to exist without being reminded of the son that he had failed. "If that man is able to come after us, after all of that, then he is a fucking metahuman and I say we call Batman to take care of it." 

The gang leader hummed his approval and started to run his fingers through Victor's hair. "Did he scream much? Beg for mercy?" 

"Like the coward that he is," Victor informed him. The most beautiful screams; in a way, it was a pity that Roman couldn't have heard them but if he had wanted to, Victor knew that he would have chosen to linger rather than excuse himself under the guise of getting food. Victor felt safe to assume it was a reflex; no matter how fucked up they were, how badly you hated them, it was hard to hear your parent screaming for your help. "You do realize that after this whole mess I'm not going to be letting you out of my sight ever again, right?" 

"I had my suspicions." And, quite frankly, after everything that had happened Roman didn't mind a little extra supervision. "Time to live up to your title, bodyguard." 


	19. Chapter 19

People could very, very predictable at times. All it took was a little patience and a little observation and you could really understand the way any individual thinks. Roman may not have spent a lot of time observing Renee Montoya, but he could read her easily. She was a woman of action, who had fought long and hard to try and make the city a better place, and when her heroics were overlooked, her motives quickly evolved to include a desire for recognition and who could blame her? She had spent years digging into the cases, the criminals that no one else would touch, only to be pushed to the side over and over again. So, when the key to the arrest of one of Gotham's former social elite fell into her lap, it was inevitable that she brought the information forward. Only this time she was clever about it, made sure to include the DA and a couple of trustworthy individuals when she went forward, and she made the executive decision to go over her former partner's head, straight to Commissioner Gordon. When the story broke, news reports featured the two of them standing shoulder to shoulder as they announced the manhunt for Richard Sionis, his discovery at the Sionis family estate, and his subsequent arrest and admission to Gotham General for undisclosed injuries. The investigation into the location of Lorraine Sionis was a footnote scrolled along the bottom of the screen. As Roman and Victor watched from the comfort of their living room couch, Roman's head resting comfortably in his boyfriend's lap, the gang leader couldn't help but smirk at that. His mother was rolling over in her watery grave. "I knew she couldn't resist." He stated and briefly tore his glance away from the tv to glance up at Victor. "You hear there's talk of having her reinstated?"

"I doubt she'd accept it though. Not after all the bullshit she had to put up with." Victor pointed out. The Birds of Prey had offered her a fresh start in a new city where her opinions were respected, she was granted the credit she so desperately craved, and for once in her professional life it seemed like Renee had finally climbed the ladder of control. Her admission of all the evidence Victor and Roman had scrounged from Richard Sionis' laptop, that was her final _fuck you_ to the Gotham PD. "It has to be satisfying for her though. She's making the entire police force look like a bunch of idiots."

"Which they are." Said Roman. Clearly an IQ test was not part of the application process. "They're withholding any footage of my father. According to the reports, Richard got fucked up but it's an ongoing investigation and they didn't want to create a panic." God forbid the citizens of Gotham come to believe that there's a serial killer walking the streets, picking people off at random. Well, there were, but Richard's assault was not the work of one of those many individuals but it was better for everyone if the police believed that it was. It threw the scent further off of Victor and Roman's trail. "I need to let you get creative more often."

"Maybe," Victor replied. "I'm still partial to the face-peeling."

Roman felt his phone, snug and secure in the breast pocket of his robe, begin to vibrate, and pulled it out with a groan, "Ugh. Ever since he was arrested people have been calling me nonstop trying to get my opinion on the matter." A bunch of media buzzards scrambling to try and get a fresh take on the matter, a new perspective, when really it was only another set of hoops to jump through. If Roman approached them honestly then he was being cold, cruel, and the blame would fall squarely on his shoulders and lead to an investigation. If he attempted to play up his more dramatic side and cry, then that ran the risk of him being expected to stand beside the man during the trial. In a situation like this, it was best to lay low, to be impartial, and to not reveal one's true opinion but try telling that to the reporters calling, emailing, even trying to gain early access to The Black Mask Club or camping outside in a poor attempt to ambush the younger of the two Sionis men. "I don't think telling them to fuck off is going to go over well." 

"Allow me," Victor offered and Roman handed his phone over to him. Victor swiped to answer the call, put it on speakerphone, and snarled, "Fuck off! He's busy-"

"Victor! It's me!" A voice that the pair of them knew fairly well interrupted. "Honestly the language between you both...I don't see the need for it." 

"What do you want Eddie?" 

"Eddie?" Roman asked, scrunching his nose as he tried to piece together where he knew the name, where he knew the voice from. "Nygma?" He asked and Victor nodded, "What the fuck does Riddler want?" 

"You hear that Ed? What the fuck do you want?" 

On his end of the line Edward scoffed, "I was calling to offer you both congratulations but now I don't want to." 

"Congratulations on what; the baby or my father finally getting what was coming to him?" Roman asked. 

"The baby, you fuckhead." Edward said and both men could practically see him roll his eyes through the phone. If Nygma had been in the room with them when he said that, Victor may have socked him straight in the nose for that one. "Honestly, I was a little hurt by all of this. We've been business associates for how long now and you didn't think to call and let me know. I had to find out through the media." He paused before adding a soft little remark, "Sad." 

"Associates? Eddie, we worked together on a heist once and tolerate each other-"

"Yeah, business associates." In a way, Edward wasn't wrong. If two people managed to pull off a heist together in Gotham without betraying each other, maiming each other, or one getting the other hand and killing the other, then it was considered a stable partnership, not to mention a successful one. But that did not mean that Roman considered himself and Edward Nygma to be on such personal terms with each other, and it certainly did not mean that he was going to be rushing off to announce his pregnancy to the other man after learning about it. Speaking of which...

"My condition was made public weeks ago. Why are you only bringing that up now?"

"I was in Arkham," Edward explained. "Still, I figured the least I could do was say congratulations, maybe give you a card or something. That is the polite thing to do, is it not? Get you a gift, find a time to drop it off at the club or...You're not having a baby shower are you?"

Roman snorted a laugh at that, "And just who would come to this shower, Eddie? The other rogues?"

"That'll go over nicely." Victor piped up. Get the city's worst criminals together in one room to celebrate the baby and just hope that everyone could get along for a couple of hours before letting them loose, pent up, into Gotham. Or worse, bring a bunch of outlaws together where they would be sitting ducks should the Gotham Police Department or The Batman figure out where they were. If they didn't end up taking each other out, then the law would. 

Edward seemed unconvinced, "Never thought I'd see the day where Roman Sionis turned down a party." 

Roman sighed, "Eddie, need I remind you that yesterday I shot my own mother in the face? What do you think I'll do to you?" It would not be as merciful as a quick bullet between the eyes, that was for damn sure. Roman took his phone back from Victor, his finger hovering over the button to end the call, when something dawned on him and he hesitated. "Have you been talking about this with the others?" He asked. How many of the other rogues had Edward been talking to about proper etiquette for when someone you had only done business with a few times (and hadn't gotten into a life-or-death brawl with) was expecting a baby? 

There a slight pause on Edward's end before he finally settled upon his answer, "A few people." 

"How many is a few?" Victor asked. 

Another pause this time broken by a hasty retreat. "Congratulations again, you guys!" He exclaimed before cutting the call short. 


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some more Roman and Victor being domestic, along with a side helping of some Twobats.

"I don't think I'm being unreasonable," Roman stated for what had to have been the fourth time that week, not that Victor had been counting. Ever since Nygma had called to offer his belated congratulations and asked if they were considering throwing a baby shower, it was the only thing that the gang leader could talk about. Everyone in Gotham knew that the man had an insatiable desire to party, regardless of the occasion, and while they hadn't discussed having anything for the baby before, now it was the only thing Roman could talk about. From the second the idea of a party had been instilled in his employer's mind, Victor knew it was going to happen. It was only a matter of time. Meanwhile, Victor was enjoying going along with it and waiting to see when Roman would finally just cave in and start planning. It should be happening in another couple of hours, maybe tomorrow morning at the latest. "You get a bunch of criminals with a lot of bad blood in a room together and something is going to happen, right?"

"I agree." 

"It just seems like a bad idea." Roman continued, "You dig back long enough and everyone has a past...if we to have it and invite The Penguin, for example, has issues with the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Harley...the list will just be so long and painful to scour over." 

"It will," But that was what happened when everyone tried to work together in this city. It was nothing but betrayals, one-night stands, and issues between them all that, if not formed as the result of some heist, occurred in Arkham. Could they really expect them to put aside all of their differences for one night and actually behave? No. No they could not. It was bound to end in someone getting murdered. "But you want the party." 

"I do." Roman whined. "Victor, help me make up my mind about this." 

Huh. This was happening sooner than Victor anticipated. He had figured that Roman would have at least been able to hold out for another hour. He nuzzled into Roman's side, "Look at it this way; everyone's issues will be with each other right? Not you. We could always just sit on the sidelines and watch." What better entertainment than watching Bane or Killer Croc go absolutely feral and snap little twig villains like Riddler and Scarecrow in half? Victor grinned and gave his boyfriend a playful nudge, "What's a party without a little drama, right?" 

"You're absolutely right. Let's do it then!" It wouldn't be easy though. This wasn't going to be like planning one of Roman's usual ragers, where most of the preparation could be carried out the day of and he didn't have to blink twice about the guest list. "But then there's the issue of who is currently in Arkham or Blackgate, who is out, and who will still be out when it comes time." 

"All of us do tend to bounce in and out of facilities." 

"And then there's the matter of legitimate relationships," Roman pointed out. "I can't have Bruce or Harvey showing up and mingling with the Rogues. You know Pamela tried to murder him once?" The last thing either Harvey or Pamela wanted was to see each other again and, even if they were to cross paths at a baby shower they'd probably fight and claw each other's faces off. 

"You could always do something just with them," Victor suggested. Something a little private, a little more intimate, between good friends and not strange-semi-business-partners-semi-enemies. They could see about going out to dinner somewhere, someplace nice, and forget about their connection to the Gotham rogues gallery for just one evening. "And me. Obviously." 

"Oh Victor, you really don't need to worry about either of them," Roman replied with a slight wave of his hand. The other man's possessive side certainly had it's perks when used correctly but this was not one of those times. It wasn't annoying by any means, but it was something he could not wrap his head around in this situation. He thought that he had made it clear that he did not have any romantic attractions towards the two. "If I had wanted Bruce, I could have had Bruce over a decade ago. Not to mention that he's been pining over someone else for nearly all of his life."

"Really? Who?" Victor asked and Roman just gave him a look. Yet another thing the gang leader had assumed had been obvious. Victor searched his face for a minute, attempting to put two and two together before it finally clicked. "That would explain some things." 

"For someone who is supposed to be so perceptive, Harvey is completely oblivious to the entire thing, and has been forever." As he grew older, Bruce had grown more subtle about expressing his feelings, but it hadn't always been that way. More than once, back when they were children, Roman had scribbled little hearts with his and Harvey's initials inside in all of his school notebooks and doodled little cartoons of them together. Roman never knew how Harvey had missed those when they were in class together. "It was worse back then though. If we were in a cartoon, Bruce'd have little hearts floating around his head and Harvey still wouldn't have noticed." 

"You ever thought about just telling him?" All it would take was a little push from a concerned third-party and they could finally bridge the gap, finally admit their true feelings towards each other. 

"Where's the fun in that?" Roman asked with a shrug. Suddenly he shivered, his hands flying to his stomach. "They're moving again." 

"They are?" Victor asked and placed his hands next to Roman's to feel for himself. Sure enough there it was, the tiniest movements beneath his palms, still so faint but getting stronger and stronger with each passing day. Victor smiled, "You're starting to show now too."

"I know! It's great! Give me some time though, I'll be saying the opposite." 

"That's a given." Victor had no disillusions regarding how aggressive Roman was going to be in regaining his abs once the baby was born and how long it was going to take him to go through all of his clothes, burning anything that no longer fit or satisfied him. Victor knew that it was going to happen but the alpha was not concerned about how he was going to handle it. Roman always looked beautiful to him; whether he was in some tight-fitting Italian suit or had just crawled out of bed with his hair completely tangled and ungelled, but something about seeing him like this...it was stunning. That old saying about people glowing while they were pregnant, well, Roman was living proof of that. Victor leaned down to press a quick kiss to the bump. "We're going to have to call Dr. Bennet, try and reschedule that appointment." Seeing as the omega had not been in any mood to attend the scheduled meeting with Dr. Bennet when they'd finally gotten him home, they had not bothered to attend. "Find out what we're having."

"Or," said Roman. "We could wait. Be surprised." 

"Or we could wait," Victor agreed, "Wouldn't that make it harder to plan for them, though? We're going to have to start looking into that sort of stuff."

"Not really. We'll just use gender-neutral colors and clothing until we know. Like, red for example. A nice, light red." 

"That's pretty close to pink. Do you know something that I don't?"

"No, it's light red. And even if it was pink, who cares? Pink is a nice color and the idea that only girls can enjoy it is damned ridiculous. If my son likes pink, he's going to get pink. If my daughter likes blue, I'll give her blue. I just happen to like red." 

"Does fit with your decorating style." Half of everything in the apartment, in the club for that matter, was some shade of red. Red or black, but even Roman recognized that such a dark color was not appropriate for a baby's room so red it was, and if their child wanted something else when they got older, they'd comply. Hell, it could be fun. Roman liked to indulge when it came to decorating and Victor could not see him being the type of parent who could deny his child anything. "Light red it is. Are you thinking about using the guest room? It would definitely have enough space for when they get bigger." 

"Well I'm not going to make them sleep on the roof and I need my office." It made the most sense to convert the guestroom. Though there was another option, one that Roman had been reluctant to even consider when he was alone. He shifted uncomfortably, "Do you think it's...sketchy to have Rose or Adam live above a nightclub when they're so little? It's convenient and it's soundproof but-"

"I don't see a problem with it, but if you do, I agree with you." 

"You're such a kiss-ass." Victor may not have been a genius but he knew better than to try and argue with his boyfriend, to say anything that would upset him, and that was just when Roman was normal and not expecting were he was, admittedly, far more sensitive than usual. Roman smirked at that, "We got about five months to get ready, think we can handle it?" 

"Five months is plenty." 


	21. Chapter 21

It would have been naive of Victor to believe that he could spend literally every moment at Roman's side, catering to his every need and ensuring that he was as far away from trouble as humanely possible but being a resourceful man he had taken the liberty of coming up with a solution to this little problem. That solution was currently leaning against their kitchen counter across from Roman, popping smarties into her mouth, as Santigo puttered around behind them finishing up the catering necessary for tonight's for the shower. As painful as it was for him to admit that not killing someone had paid off, Quinn had made herself useful ever since they had found out about the baby. But this was something Victor was never, ever, ever going to tell her because even the most casual observer could tell that it would go straight to her head and then he really would have to kill her, and then who would keep Roman entertained when he sent Victor to pick up the various packages he ordered online? Harley popped a red smartie into her mouth, "So who's coming to this thing anyway?" 

"Nygma, Crane, Isley, Dorrance, and Cobblepot. Everybody else is either in Arkham or Blackgate so it's a small affair," Roman replied and plucked out a green smartie for himself. Small considering the full-scale parties that Roman was used to throwing and attending but definitely more ideal for their situation. "Which is perfectly fine. The less people, the less likely of a fight breaking out." 

"What about Selina?" Harley asked and this time grabbed a handful of the candies to munch on. 

Roman scrunched his nose up, "Selina doesn't like me." And that was the short version of it. He would really not go into all of the sorted details on the matter, who betrayed who and whatnot, otherwise, they would be there all night. "And if we invited her she'd take half of the apartment before we even knew she was casing the place." 

"Fair enough. She still owes me fifty bucks from when we went to see Infinity War. I made a bet that Thanos was going to win and she naively thought otherwise."

"That's stupid. How could she think that, in a movie that was marketed as being split in two, Thanos would loose the first half." What the fuck would part two be about then? All of the characters introduced over the past decade just sitting around the board room discussing politics and interrelations ala _The Phantom Menace_? They could paint Paul Rudd up in Darth Maul make-up just to piss off the nerds even further. Huh. Roman was going to have to make a mental note to see how much stake in Disney he would have to buy before they would let him pitch projects. This could be promising. The omega grabbed a couple more smarties from the bowl and shoved them into his mouth. 

Harley could see the wheels turning in Roman's head but made the executive decision not to ask, taking the opportunity to shovel more candy into her mouth instead. "Are your more respectable friends coming?" 

"No," That should have been obvious. How many times had one of the five rogues planning on attending this thing attempted to kidnap, kill, or extort either Bruce or Harvey? Only a couple but that was still fucked up and would ruin the celebratory mood in the blink of an eye. At that point either the guys would cut Roman out of their lives for good or haul him off to Arkham right on sight. "Could you imagine the looks on their faces if Bruce and Harvey arrived to see us partying with half of the rogues gallery? With fucking Bane of all people?" 

"Hey. Bane's a sweetheart. He'd be the most likely guy to come to your shower, even if you weren't a gangster." 

"You're not wrong." Whenever the man wasn't pumping himself up on venom and blowing something up, he could be incredibly sweet and considerate. It was a shame that he wasn't seeing anyone. Maybe Roman could gather Harley and Victor after the party and see about playing a game of match-maker-...God, he was becoming his fucking mother. Shaking those thoughts aside, the man continued, "Still, me and Victor were just planning on taking the guys out for dinner to celebrate. We would have done it this week but Harvey's been a bit run-off his feet lately. What with prepping for my dad's trial and the Maroni trial." 

That had been the front-page story for The Gotham Gazette for the last week. While the Gotham PD were still investigating the circumstances surrounding the assault on Richard Sionis, prior to his arrest, the media had shifted gears to focus on the arrest and speedy trial of organized crime boss Salvatore Maroni. It had been years in the making, the result of every half-decent cop to ever grace the force in the last thirty years building up the case before they were finally able to get something concrete enough to make the arrest. In order to avoid a literal mob of civilians flooding the courthouse to watch, they had bumped the first session as late as they could hold it, and the first session would be held tonight so, even if Roman had been planning on inviting Harvey and Bruce, only one of the two would have been able to attend. Harvey was presiding and this was shaping up to be the pinnacle of his career. Roman had already been messaging Bruce and making plans to take their friend out once the trial had wrapped up to congratulate him. Harv had worked hard to get where he was and, even if they hadn't been able to reconnect, Roman still would have been proud of him. 

"Your buddy's a brave man to go after Maroni like that." Harley said, her eyes locking on the last few smarties in the bowl. She scooped them up and devoured the chocolate with a pleased smile, "Kinda cute too-"

 _Uh oh_... "Harley, I promise you that it wouldn't work out. He's lawful good and you're chaotic neutral." 

"You sure about that?" 

"I don't know. I never played D&D before." That was where the alignment charts came from right? Roman was going to have to look it up later just to verify it but he was pretty certain that he was correct. "You get my point though." Out of the corner of his eye the gang leader saw Harley reaching for something else on the counter, some small and metal, and it only took him a second to recognize what her intentions were. He could smell Santigo taking the cake he had been preparing out of the oven behind him and Harley's attempt to reach for a fork was not as subtle as she would have wanted. "Hey! Drop it! Not time for cake yet!"

"Aww." The clown yanked her hand back with a pout, "I thought you couldn't see." 

"I can always see." Roman retorted and called back over his shoulder, "Santigo, don't let her push you around. The cake is for tonight."

"I have come up with the perfect solution to such a problem," Santigo explained and pulled an additional tray, previously hidden by the cake, out from the oven. He set the tray down on the counter, allowing the two a chance to see what he had been working on; three large vanilla cupcakes. He set about removing them from the tray so they could cool. "I made extra for the two of you, along with one for Victor when he returns from is errands." 

Harley waited all of two seconds for her cupcake to cool before snatching up her cupcake and taking a large, mouthwateringly hot bite. "Santigo, how did I live before meeting you?" 

"Thank you, Santigo," Roman told the man but made the decision to let his cool before he tried to eat it. He didn't want to burn his mouth before the party. "I have to admit that I'm looking forward to this. After everything."

"And you're looking forward to the drama," Harley replied with a smirk. "Wonder how long it'll be before Eddie puts Pengy in a headlock." 

"I give it an hour." That was assuming Pamela didn't pull an Amazon and throw every single person who got on her nerves out the window before then. Either way, Harley had already agreed to film so they could enjoy it again later. "Is Cass coming?" 

"No," Harley explained. "She's studying for some entrance exam. Trying to get into that fancy private school uptown near Westmore Park." It wasn't Gotham Academy but it was an improvement over the shitty public school she had been attending when she was in foster care. "Also you know she's be walking out of here with Eddie's cane or something and I don't want to listen to him bitch." 

"Fair enough." Nygma was the type of person who would bitch about it too. Bitch and whine and bombard phones with equally whiney and bitchy texts. The three of them could hear the doors to the lift open and the sound of boots coming down the hallway. Roman took a bite of his cupcake now that it had cooled off and made a note to remember to give the man another night off some time soon. God knows that Santigo deserved it. "Hey Victor. How'd it go?" 

"Good." The other man grunted back in response and rounding the corner carrying a gigantic cardboard box. He set it down next to the counter and had to stop for a second to catch his breath. Between gasps for breath, he managed to get out, "What'd you order anyway Boss? It weighed a ton." 

"Just a couple of things from Saks for the baby," Roman informed him. "Some blankets, a couple of towels, some clothes..."

"Romy, it looks like you ordered a fridge!" Harley retorted and walked around to stand next to the box, just to get some sense of scale. Standing directly next to it, the box came up to around her hip. "How much is some?"

Roman rolled his eyes, "Don't be such babies-" He told them both and placed his hands on the box, fully intending to lift it up and prove that they were just being dramatic, but Victor moved faster, gently batting his hands away and shooing him back.

"Don't you dare try and lift it!" Victor insisted and grabbed the box back up. If the stuff was for the baby, he'd take it back to what used to be the guests' room and set it aside to be opened after the party. "I got it! On second thought, I got it!" 

Harley watched as Zsasz struggled to get a good hold of the box before finally managing to get it into a comfortable position and taking off with it down the hall towards the baby's room. The clown smirked and gave Roman a playful little nudge, "You have him completely wrapped around your finger, don't you?" 

"I do." Roman couldn't even pretend that he didn't. Then again, why would he? "I also happened to take your suggestion to heart when it came to ordering some of that stuff. There was this really cute blanket that I thought he may appreciate." 

"Aww." Harley couldn't help but gush. "You're going to have to show me after everybody heads home." He was going to have to show her everything that he had gotten for the baby so far when the party had wrapped up. Any excuse to look at cute, tiny little baby clothes!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it isn't obvious, my interpretation of Bane has been largely influenced by the Harley Quinn cartoon, Batman The Animated Series, and The Lego Batman Movie. I admittedly haven't read many comics involving the character but love fun-Bane so that's what's happening.


	22. Chapter 22

Harley and Victor had just begun to bring some of the food Santigo had prepped into the living room when people started to arrive. Ever the extravagant host, Roman left to go and greet them. Harley and Victor had their hands full after all. He had barely rounded the corner towards the lift when he came face to face was a moving wall of green. In hindsight, he really should have expected the others to not need to be let in though he was going to have to replace the locks on the doors tomorrow. "Hello," The wall of green otherwise known as Edward Ngyma said. "I again wanted to offer my congratulations especially given how...informal I was over the phone. Am I the first one here?"

"Hello Eddie," Roman greeted him. Why was he not surprised that Nygma was the first person to show up? Maybe this was his way of doing damage control after gossiping about the gang leader's condition with the rest of the rogues. "After Harley, yes."

"Oh good, then my plan was successful." 

"What plan?" 

"My plan to slash the tires on Oswald's car so I could beat him here." The stupid aristocrat had been bragging, _actually bragging_ , about how much he had spent on his gift as if that somehow had an impact on its quality. Considering what he had purchased (and Edward knew exactly what Oswald had purchased because he had hacked his email in order to read through the confirmation notices) and the lack of use the child would actually have for it, Cobblepot's words were completely hollow. Nothing more than a pathetic excuse to flaunt his wealth in everyone else's faces. so, naturally, Edward had taken it upon himself to teach the other man a lesson. Penguin may have gotten the most expensive gift, but he was going to be arriving more than fashionably late for the party. On that note, Edward produced a thick hardcover book, wrapped simply in a green ribbon and bow, out from under his arm and proudly presented it to Roman, "This is for you." 

"Thank you Eddie, you-" Any kind words Roman had for the man died in his throat. Rather than purchase a gift for the baby, it would seem that Edward had gone straight to the parenting & family section of Barnes and Noble. Either that or the comedy section because Roman would not be surprised if he flipped open the cover to see a parody piece. The book was titled _Things Your Child Will Blame You For In Therapy_ and, parody or not, the author was going to mysteriously disappear in the days to come, Roman could tell. It was a fitting punishment for such an absurd title. Maybe he'd see if they could pull off shredding a person like he would inevitably shred this book. "Oh." 

Edward patted Roman on the shoulder, "I knew you would make great use of it." He stated and before Roman had time to even properly think of a response, Nygma was hurrying off and waving at a certain clown who had been watching the exchange go down, all the while helping herself to some of the ouderves that Santigo had prepared. "Hello Harley!"

"That fucking guy..." Roman mumbled. He wasn't even aware when another person appeared in the doorway, not until he caught sight of the book in Roman's hands and let out a loud, exasperated sigh,

"Oh, he bought the book didn't he? I told him not to get the book when he asked me for my opinion but he never listens to me anyway." That was one thing about the Riddler than Jonathan never could wrap his head around. He had a Ph.D., as a former psychology professor he was used to dealing with the most demanding and self-righteous people (both in his department and the students it governed over), and out of every single person that Jonathan had ever met, Ngyma was by far the worst. What was even the point of asking for his opinion if he wasn' going to listen to it? Jonathan sighed once more and brushed some of his hair out of his eyes; it had been a long time since he'd stepped out without his mask on but it didn't seem appropriate attire for a baby shower so, for one night, he'd make that sacrifice. "Hello, Roman."

"Jonathan!" The gang leader greeted him. "It is nice to see you again...Sort of." The last time Roman had seen the man go without his mask, Crane was still a professor at Gotham University and had yet to take up a life of crime! Roman couldn't help himself; he reached over to tuck the loose strands of Jonathan's hair back behind his ears so it wouldn't be bothering him the entire night. "I never understood why you felt the need to hide your face. With a tiny bit of work, you could be gorgeous."

"I'm not letting you give me a makeover." "If I can say no to Ivy, I can say no to you." 

"I'm not talking about a full-scale makeover. Just a little bit of makeup," "There is no one who can't be improved by a little bit of eyeliner." 

"Bold of you to assume that I don't have some right now." He didn't but the bags under his eyes were dark enough that in the right lighting, Jonathan could pass them off as something other than the lack of proper sleep that they actually were. More than a little ready to get onto a new subject and leave all talks regarding his appearance behind, Jonathan handed Roman an average-sized box wrapped neatly in orange and black wrapping paper. "I also got my gift for you from Barnes and Noble but I actually went to the children's section, unlike Eddie." 

"I appreciate that Jon," Roman said and accepted the gift. He never thought that he would need to clarify to people that traditionally baby shower gifts were directed towards the children like cute toys and clothes but then again they weren't the most...traditional bunch were they? Seeing Harley and Eddie going to town on what looked and smelled to be a delicious batch of Bacon Pierogies, Jonathan excused himself and hurried off to grab some for himself before they were all gone (a decision that would benefit him in the long wrong because had he waited for even a second longer, the plate would have been empty). 

Victor had managed to grab one before Eddie and Harley went to town and made his way over to his boyfriend, savoring each and every bite. Roman snickered; they were a bunch of gluttons, the lot of them! He was about to ask Victor if he was enjoying himself and if he was prepared to fight the rest of them off to save himself a piece of cake when a pair of strong arms wrapped around them both and pulled them into a hug. Roman yelped in surprise but all of his fears vanished the second he turned his head to confront his assailant."Oh! Hello Bane!"

"Bane!" Victor greeted the other alpha with a grin and, as best as he could with Bane unintentionally pinning his arms at his sides, wriggled an arm free to clap the other guy on the shoulder. This was one of his more gentler bear hugs, dialed back out of the man's own anxiety over accidentally causing Roman or the child any unnecessary stress, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the two currently in his hold. That was Bane for you; one moment he'd be blowing up Gotham Stadium and the next he was giving you the world's best bear hug and asking you how your mother's operation went because, for some reason, none of the other rogues could fully understand, he remembered things that people ranted to him about when they were drunk like some bartender-turned-terrorist. Carefully Bane let them both go only to be pulled into another (albeit less confining) hug by Roman himself,

"Hey Buddy! Heard you just got out of Arkham. How'd you hold up?"

"I was running the place," Bane replied with a well-deserved grin, dripping with confidence. " _Two_ servings of dessert and first choice of Arkham's library!" Which, admittedly, was not much; tattered old books donated by Gotham's public library, old magazines and newspapers with the most current issues being from 1985, videotapes that skipped and were never rewound when you went to check them out, but that was beside the point. What mattered was that Bane got first pick and the respect that came with it. "But I am happy to be out, happy to be here, and happy for you both." All of the parks that came from being Arkham's unofficial king aside, it was nothing to being a free man and able to celebrate something so wonderfully domestic. "I did get you something for the baby but it will be another week before it gets here. I was planning on dropping it off when it arrived." Damn North Gotham Delivery! They had told him that the package would be arriving within three days of the order being completed and it was now stretching onto the eighth day. Bane was already making plans to destroy their local distributing office...after he got his package of course because it would be incredibly counterproductive if he were to blow it up while the package was still inside. 

"Roman," "Victor." 

"Ivy. It's been a while." "I was actually surprised when you said that you'd be coming here tonight."

"Yes, well, Harley told me I had too," Not entirely true but Ivy was not about to let either of the two men know that. Harley may have been filling her ear with stories, letting her know all about the little adventures she had gotten up to working alongside Zsasz and Black Mask, but Ivy was reluctant to go about placing blind trust into anyone. But this shower was an excuse for her to get together with the more tolerable members of the rogues gallery and gossip about the rest. She wasted no time producing a tiny box wrapped in mint green paper from her jacket pocket and handing it over to Victor. It wasn't her main gift but she would have felt weird showing up without something in hand. "She also told me that I had to give your kid the vaccine for my toxins so give me a call after they're born." She'd never had to give it to a newborn before so she was just going to follow the CDC's guidelines and administer it around the same time that the baby was getting their regular vaccine shots. 

"That's more than I expected from you," Roman admitted. He had expected Harley to show up, get into an unavoidable fight with either the Riddler or the Penguin, and help herself to some of Santigo's spinach puffs, and then leave after stealing the batteries out of every remote in the house. This had been the most sociable Ivy had been in all the time that either Roman or Victor had known the woman and she made a good point regarding getting the baby protected not only against the usual, but also Gotham's homegrown illnesses. "Remind me to talk to Jon about the fear toxin vaccine before he leaves." 

"That's thinking ahead." Ivy had to admit. It would spare the child from experiencing any deranged living nightmare if they just so happened to stroll into an area where the Scarecrow was plotting out a robbery or a mass attack. It wouldn't be intentional, of course, just an issue of the kid being in the wrong place at the wrong time that could be easily prevented. That was enough speaking with the murderous couple alone for now and Ivy could catch the faint scent of freshly baked spinach puffs wafting over from the living room. The ecoterrorist gave them both a curt nod and wandered past them to go indulge and meet up with the others. Four down, one to go, and as Eddie had predicted (and influenced), Oswald Cobblepot was the last to arrive. He strolled in accompanied by two of his goons who were quick to drop off the packages that they had been carrying, all considerably huge and wrapped in glittery, sparkly wrapping paper that may or may not have been made from real diamonds, and vamose on out of the apartment. 

"Roman my boy!" Cobblepot exclaimed and gently took one of Roman's hands to press a kiss to the back of it like the old world gentleman he loved to carry himself as. "Terribly sorry that I was late, some _deviant_ thought it would be a funny idea to slash my tires!" Insurance would cover the damages of course but that was not important! The nerve of someone, to think that they could get away with destroying the Penguin's own personal property! Well, they would learn their lesson when their lifeless body was found floating lifeless in the frigid tank of The Iceberg Lounge! Cobblepot pulled back, allowing himself to get a good look at the young man for the first time since he had learned of Roman's condition. As expected, he was simply _radiant_. "Ah, but look at you! Absolutely stunning! Victor, dear lad, you are a very lucky man." 

"Oh, that's terrible. I wonder who did that." Would it be in poor taste for Roman to try his hand at blackmailing Nygma by threatening to reveal the truth behind the assault on the Penguin's car, when the man had gone out of his way to attend the baby shower? Considering that fucking book, Roman was quite tempted. He decided to play it by ear, see how the night progressed, and if old Eddie behaved any better into the evening. Otherwise Roman was sure he could find a way to anonymously let the story slip to Cobblepot. It would make marvelous entertainment if things started to become dull. "

"You're such a flatterer, Oswald." Victor added. 

"I speak nothing but the truth." Oswald insisted. "Perhaps it was a bit extreme on my part but I got something for the two of you, as well as your little one." He explained and gestured towards the mountain of presents that his goons had brought in. He had spent nearly $24,000 on the three gifts but it would be worth every penny when Roman and Victor opened them up and that consistently smug smirk was wiped clear off of Edward Nygma's face! Oh yes, Oswald would happily surrender millions of his fortune if it meant that for one brief but fulfilling moment that Edward would not have the last word. 

Across the room, mid-munch on one of Santigo's spinach puffs, the man in question mumbled with a mouthful of chewed spinach and pastry, "What a kiss-ass."


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the rogues gets a bit rowdy and gives away some information that he probably shouldn't have, Bane continues to be the best, and Ivy and Harley make some predictions. Also, I get to explore this really dumb headcanon I have for Victor that originated from the middle of nowhere. Enjoy! :D

"So it was you who did that little number on Richard wasn't it?" Penguin asked after taking a nice, long sip of his tea. While the others were content with drinking fancy Italian-style soda, his gracious hosts had remembered that he was not fond of carbonated beverages and gone out of their way to make something special for him. It was sweet and very much unlike the pair of them unless they were making rounds in the club. Then again, Roman had always prided himself on his hosting skills. "I knew it. The lack of a peeled-face, not to mention him being left alive after his encounter, threw me for a loop at first but there was no one else who hates that man as much as you do. That was a thing of pure beauty."

Roman waved him off as though it was nothing. There was a time for bragging and a time to be humble and he could let the other gangster's praise get to him later. He was more concerned about giving credit where credit was due, "That was all Victor. I just gave him a knife and told him to have fun."

"I'm honestly impressed," Ivy admitted and kicked her feet up onto the coffee table, reclining back into her seat on the couch and making herself comfortable. Roman flinched inwardly and made a mental note to have his maid scrub the thing down later. At least her boots weren't caked with mud like the last time she had been over. "Well done." 

"It's unfortunate that he will be unable to be sentenced to Blackgate given his physical state but spending the remainder of his life to a hospital bed unable to move or talk is punishment enough, I suppose." Roman could live with that, could live with his father still existing so long as he spent every single moment in a massive amount of pain, in fact, he could savor it. And he was! 

"Damn," Eddie mumbled. "I can't wait to see how you handle this kid when the teenage years hit."

"Mmm," Oswald hummed in agreement. "That's going to be a joy. Especially if they take after you, Roman. No offense, love, but you have a tendency to be dramatic."

"I am going to enjoy watching that go down from afar." Ivy piped up and Roman gnashed his teeth together to keep himself from spewing out something that would end with him getting socked in the nose, regardless of his condition. Next to him Victor straightened up and clenched his fists, ready to spring into action at his employer's command. Luckily it didn't come to that point. Bane shrugged his giant shoulders and retorted, 

"That will not be for years." He pointed out, sensing that the omega's patience was starting to wear thin. The big man was not innocent, he knew that a fight was bound to break out at some point, but not so quickly, not if he had anything to say about it. He hadn't planned on things getting physical until at least an hour in. "Don't worry about that now. Just think about how cute and soft babies are." 

"The man makes a good point." Jonathan agreed. 

"Oh, yeah, kids are great. Fresh young minds to mold," Harley exclaimed. "You can teach them to hate all the people you hate." Which was why Cass now referred to the Joker as _That Fucking Douche_ whenever she saw any news reports featuring the clown. It should not have been that entertaining to hear her snarl those words at blurry video footage of Harley's ex. 

"I will admit to doing that with my niece and nephew." Oswald did not consider himself a family man by any means but on the rare occasions he was in communication with his sister, he did find himself enjoying the company of the younger members of the Cobblepot clan. "If you are ever in a bad mood, the fastest way to cheer yourself up is to listen to a small child scream obscenities at a person that they have never even met."

"I like the sound of that." 

Nygma took a nice big bite out of the spinach puff he had managed to acquire, polishing it off. "I wonder if they will inherit your arm, Victor." He said innocently enough but that statement was enough to suck the air out of the entire room. 

"The fuck are you talking about Eddie?" Roman asked. 

"You don't know?"

"Know what?" From what he had learned over the years, the gang leader liked to believe that he knew his boyfriend fairly well, better than anyone else in Gotham, in New Jersey, in the world, but even so there were a couple of noticeable gaps in his knowledge. Victor didn't like to talk about his life before he picked up the knife, had never once brought it up in conversation and coming from a shitty background himself Roman never dared to ask. If the alpha wanted to keep his skeletons locked up in the closet, then Roman would let them remain there but the thought of Eddie knowing something about Victor, _his Victor_ , that he didn't was sickening. 

"Nygma-" Victor growled but the other man continued anyway. 

"Your boy here used to be quite the athlete," Edward explained and draped an arm around Victor's shoulders. Zsasz shot the other man a glare and knocked the arm off of him. The brainiac didn't seem to care. "Helped the Gotham High Jaguars win state for three years in a row." 

Roman's eyes widened to the size of saucers and he turned to get a good look at the man sitting next to him who was unable to do anything other than shift uncomfortably. "You played sports?" He asked. It wasn't entirely crazy, sure, but Victor didn't seem like that kind of guy. He never talked about it, Roman never thought to ask, and whenever his mind did wander to the type of person Victor was before he took up the knife Roman always pictured him as the sit-in-the-back-while-wearing-a-trenchcoat-and-doodling-knives type. Had he been unintentionally stereotyping his boyfriend this entire time? "You don't strike me as the jock-type."

"It was a long time ago-" A very long time ago so much so that it could be considered ancient history. 

Either Edward didn't catch the man's hint for him to drop this topic or he didn't care. With the Riddler it was really hard to tell. He grinned and continued, more than a little happy to share his knowledge on such a limited field. The fact that he and Victor had gone to high school together, even with a gap separating them, was something that amused him to no end. "Victor used to be Gotham High's golden boy. He still holds about twenty records both in school and in the state."

"Really?" Jonathan asked. 

The man in question groaned and put his head in his hands, "I wasn't that good. Eddie is just embellishing-"

"The year you dropped out we dropped from the number one position to the bottom five." Nygma went on. He remembered that year well; while he held up in the library every day after school trying to get a leg up on his various entries to the annual science fair, students and faculty alike were running around like a bunch of morons crying and bitching about the underwhelming performance of the baseball team. They went so far as to transfer a bunch of funds from the science program to send some of the team to a special training camp in hopes of recovering their losses. Edward remembered calling it out for the bullshit it was to more than one teacher and getting sent to the principal's office a handful of times because of it. "You can play modest all you like Victor but we both know that was all you." Edward flashed Roman a grin, "Did you know there was a time people thought he'd go pro?"

Ivy nearly choked on the orange Italian soda she had been drinking. "Pro?" She managed to wheeze out between coughs. "Like a professional athlete. You're telling me Mister Face-Peeler was once in the running to go professional in a sport?"

"Drop it, Edward." Victor growled. He was not going to tell him again...

Edward waved him off. "You know, I heard a little rumor back then that you had an offer. Sounds a little...too nice so I never believed it until I did some digging. Did you know, Roman, that your boy here turned down an offer to go to the Boston Red Sox training camp?" 

Bane squeezed the spinach puff he had been holding so tightly that the pastry completely turned to dust in his hands; not crumbs, not mush, but literal dust. "You turned down the Red Sox?!"

"What the fuck is the Red Sox?" Roman asked. It sounded familiar but he had never been much of a sports fan himself, not to the point where he could list off the various teams that comprised of the various leagues. Also what the fuck kind of team name was the Red Sox?! Good team names were always animal-related and vicious, not a goddam article of clothing!

That was enough. Victor grabbed the back of Edward's head, specifically the scruff where it connected to his neck and used the leverage to slam the other man's head down as hard as he could onto the coffee table. Nygma didn't even have time to blink let alone put up some sort of resistance. The ensuing thud was sickening and when Victor let go, Edward flopped backwards onto the floor, his eyes closed and blood pouring from his nose. He wasn't dead though; Edward's chest was still rising and falling with the undeniable flow of life. At worst he had a concussion, maybe a broken nose, but Victor was satisfied with his work. That would teach the bastard to go digging up the ghosts of the past. Victor's gaze snapped back to the rest of the group. "Anybody else want to go shoving their noses into something that isn't their business?!" He demanded. No one dared to utter a word. "That's what I thought." 

"I played basketball for a while," Ivy stated while they were on the topic of athletics and the matter of Edward's unconscious body on the cold floor was left unaddressed. "Our team wasn't any good and our school wasn't recognized by the state so even if we were we could never get to compete against other teams-"

"How was your school never recognized by the state?" Bane asked. His knowledge of the education system in the United States was not necessarily vast but he was pretty sure that any school operating within the country needed to be recognized by the government in some shape, way, or form, even minusculely. Otherwise, the cults could move in...

"The school was, our athletics department wasn't." Ivy explained. "Lady Marie Van Garm's Academy. It was an all-girls school and yet my parents were completely blindsided when I told them I was gay."

"You actually told your parents?" Jonathan asked. "I just waited until mine died."

Cobblepot rolled his eyes and took another sip of his tea, "My word, we are a bleak bunch aren't we?"

Roman snorted a laugh, "Oswald, we fight a man dressed as a giant bat on a regular basis. Us being bleak is not the worst thing we as a collective have in common."

* * *

After polishing off the last of Santigo's spinach puffs Harley excused herself to go and grab some more snacks from the kitchen. Neither Roman or Victor minded. She knew were they kept the goodies due to their movie nights and the matter of running out of food had already been brought up between them all before the party even began. She got up, stepped over Eddie's still unconscious body, and wandered into the kitchen, locked onto the cupboard where the guys' kept the potato chips. She grabbed a bag of ruffled, leaving behind the salt & vinegar (Victor's and he was not willing to share) and turned to reenter the living room. Somehow Ivy had followed her in without being noticed. The other woman leaned against the kitchen counter, resting her chin on her hands and watching. "Roman and Victor seem...well." She said once Harley finally realized that she was there. "They're actually talking to you without any trace of disgust...what have you been doing these past few months?"

"Gently peppering their drinks with some Respect Woman Juice." Not literally of course because that didn't exist yet though Ivy had been working on it. She hadn't gotten the serum to the point where it was ready for human testing yet but give her another few months and they'd be in business. No, this was Harley working her particular brand of endearing annoyance. "I don't think they realized it yet. I'm hoping it doesn't hit them until after the baby's been born and I'm already sworn in as Godmother." She smirked triumphantly. "Goodluck trying to kill me then."

"A brilliant strategy." Ivy had to admit. "If it doesn't work out with Roman and Victor, though, you could always try your luck elsewhere."

"How do you figure?" 

"Ever hear of this thing called aching empty womb syndrome?"

Harley scrunched her nose up in disgust, "No, but it sounds sexist." 

"It is but I can see it already rearing its ugly head." Not through words but through action. It was common knowledge amongst them all that the rogues gallery was full of competitive folks, ones who were always chasing what they could never have, and even if they weren't, there was also the jealousy factor. All of those elements swirled together to create the perfect storm and Ivy could see the clouds starting to roll in. "Basically it's the notion that, after spending time with a pregnant friend, someone's going to grow envious and desire a baby themselves so they go a little crazy." 

"You think that could happen among us rogues?" Harley asked and it immediately dawned on her that it was a stupid question. Of course, it could happen! It seemed like the impossible always had a way of finding one, if not all, of them. If more than a couple members of the gallery could be inducted (briefly) into the Lantern corps, then they could catch the mortal ailment known as baby fever. Wait a couple of months and half of them would be pregnant or caring for infants! She really shouldn't have but Harley was unable to choke back the laugh that arose in her throat the more she thought about it. "Christ, that would throw old Bats for a loop, wouldn't it? I'd pay to see the look on his face when he found out half his villains were pregnant!" _Sorry, Commissioner Gordon, I can't prevent that bank robbery over on seventh because the person committing is heavily pregnant and I don't feel comfortable fighting someone in that condition. Even if they are armed with an M-16_. "...You don't have it, do you?" 

Ivy snorted. "I have my plants. I don't need a kid coming around picking their leaves off and forgetting to care for them." Children were...fine from afar where they couldn't run around, messing up her greenhouse, eating all of her snacks, and rummaging through her things. At this point in life, Ivy was more than content with being a wine aunt who dropped in occasionally to teach the children how to avoid paying taxes and what to say if they were ever detained. "You?" 

"I already got a kid. And mine knows how to take care of herself, relatively," In other words, Harley didn't have to worry about leaving Cass alone for a couple of hours. The girl wasn't going to burn the house down and the worst thing that Harley had to worry about was walking in on some wild teenage party, in which case she would throw her newfound sense of responsibility spurred by her guardianship to the side and join in on the fun. Having a baby would put more than a damper on her abilities to go out alone, not to mention that she had only been away from the Joker for less than a year and she was still figuring things out. "If I want to cuddle a baby I'll just come back here." 

A flawless system. Ivy gestured back into the living room to the group currently assembled. Aside from Eddie, still completely out of it on the floor, everyone else had gotten out Cards Against Humanity and were deep in the middle of a game. The eco-villain had the sneaking suspicion that Roman had never been to any baby showers before, because his was shaping up to be more of a get together (which was more her style to begin with) but whatever made him happy. "Who do you think will crack first?"She asked. 

"Tough to say." It could be someone here with them or it could be someone in Arkham who kept up with the gossip; it was hard to say. Anyone in their gallery was at risk if what Ivy said was true. "There is the big problem of most of 'em bein' single." Harley pointed out but that could easily be changed with a visit to the app store to download Tindr or, just maybe, they'd keep it within their group. Harley shivered at the thought. Batman and Gordon would _shit_ themselves! "Ives, I think we're about to see some unusual couples occurrin'." 

"I am both thrilled and utterly horrified." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell that I've never been to a baby shower before? Lol.


	24. Chapter 24

Edward was out for just short of an hour. He slowly came back with a low groan, one hand instinctively moving to rub his forehead as it throbbed. With his other hand, Eddie managed to grab hold of the edge of the coffee table and pull himself back up into a sitting position. Someone had prepared for this eventuality and the man found a small bottle of Tylenol waiting for him next to what remained of the grape soda he'd been nursing. Edward popped the cap, took four pills, and chased them down with a mouthful of now-flat soda. "Ugh, what hit me?"

"Victor," Harley answered for the collective. Looking around, Edward could see that the party had continued without him. He really wished that he could have been surprised by this development. He really did. "You really need to learn to shut up. Just for once in your life."

If his head didn't feel like shit Edward would have been able to come up with something witty he could say in response to that but he didn't so the man just leaned back against the nearest couch and put his head in his hands, mumbling out a single word under his breath. "Dick."

Oswald rolled his eyes. What was with his vexing acquaintance and his desire to make things far more complicated than they needed to be? Still something about Edward's behavior tonight seemed troubling, far less intelligent than Edward's usual brand of mayhem. "You're in a mood tonight Edward, is something troubling you?"

"I think I'm just on edge." Edward admitted without looking up. He felt like if he lifted his head too quickly he was going to vomit. Fuck, he was going to need to find a walk-in clinic on his way out of here. "Maroni's going to prison, no way he can get outta this one, which means every two-bit criminal to grace the city is going to be making a move."

"And you're concerned about your assets," Ivy said filling in the gaps. 

"These are troubling times." Jonathan agreed. When the Gotham Police were able to take down someone as connected, as cunning, as manipulative as Maroni then they could take down anyone. Rather, they'd feel like they could take down anyone and an overconfident cop was just a pain in the ass to try and workaround and that was just law enforcement. With Maroni gone there would be an inevitable power struggle among his organization to maintain order while the big cheese was behind bars and the crowning of a new king would allow any other outfits to try their hand at taking what the man had built. Gotham was looking at two completely different power struggles breaking out in what could be as short as a couple of days. The master of fear's gaze landed upon the man of the hour, "You're tight with the DA. Couldn't you get him to loosen the charges, maybe have some evidence go missing?"

Roman shook his head, "Harvey's not like that. He's already pushing his boundaries with Richard, not mentioning the bullshit that happened between me and him, and Victor going to meet with him." He was withholding information out of what Roman could only assume to be guilt surrounding his inaction so many years ago, and Roman refused to put any further pressure on the man. He'd only just gotten the guy back in his life and the gang leader was hesitant to do anything that could jeopardize that. He wanted Harvey and Bruce to be in his child's life. "Harvey's clean."

"A regular boy scout," Ivy added with only the slightest hint of bitterness. "A boring old boy scout..."

"Perhaps an alliance will be in our best interests," Bane suggested. "Until the city recovers from Maroni's loss we could look out for each other. Protect our collective assets."

"A temporary alliance with the possibility of renewal is not a bad idea." Jonathan summarized. Similar arrangements had been carried out in the past but on a much lesser scale. Those arrangements had been limited to two, maybe three rogues, not seven (eight if you included Victor which Jonathan did not. He was a member of Roman's criminal empire and could be counted with him) but it could be done. Together they had the money, the brains, the brawn to keep everyone's heads afloat while the Maroni matter was settled. The only real issue would be keeping everyone from resorting to petty squabbling within a day although, the master of fear thought as he dared to sneak a quick peek over at Bane's enormous biceps, they could always maintain order with a little bit of force. He wouldn't object to seeing the man who had broken the bat chuck Edward like a boomerang after the insufferable man got into another one of his smarter-than-though rants. "Good thinking Bane."

Harley groaned loudly and flopped backward, her head landing in Ivy's lap. The ecoterrorist did not object. "Can we talk about business later?" She asked. "It's a party! We should do something fun!"

"Like what Harls?" Ivy asked in return and started to amuse herself by running her fingers through the other woman's hair. 

"Gifts!" The clown exclaimed. "And cake!" 

Now they were talking! Actually moving into what was supposed to be going down at a baby shower instead of sitting around squabbling, fighting, and discussing the boring matters of the business world! "I have to agree with Miss Quinn," Oswald spoke up and not solely because he wanted to see the looks on everyone's faces when Roman opened up his gifts. He also wanted to see what cheap garbage the rest of the assembled party had purchased as sorry excuses for presents and he was not afraid to say that. In fact he did! "I am curious to see what passes for gifts from the rest of you." 

"It is not a competition," Roman assured them all. Yes it was, but he was not stupid enough to let his judgment show when he was surrounded by a group composed of some of the most lethal criminals in the city. "But let's see." He reached for the nearest present, the one wrapped in orange and black wrapping paper and whose gifter could not be denied. Roman attempted to lift it up onto the coffee table for ease and immediately caught off guard. "Jonathan! This thing weighs a ton! What do you have in here, a bowling ball?" Scarecrow had managed buying his gift at the same place as Nygma, Barnes & Noble, so Roman had a reasonable idea of what was inside the box but he had been under the impression that it would be one book. Maybe two or three. Just a couple of cute paperbacks, nothing too extravagant but this felt like it contained a whole encyclopedia set inside. He tore off the wrapping paper, tossed it aside, lifted the lid and was taken by surprise for the second time. Inside, in place of a couple of cheap paperback books, were a handful of children's literary classics, each in a stylized hardcover. Victor leaned in to get a better look and flipped through some of the titles; Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, The Wizard of Oz, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, The Complete Peter Rabbit, Charlotte's Web, etc. "Oh, Jonathan you really didn't need to go this far. There must be twenty books here." 

"Eleven," Jonathan corrected him. "I was just going to get a couple of classics to start your child's library off but then I saw the hardcover colleter's editions and I couldn't help myself." As soon as he had seen the store's collector's editions with those beautifully styled covers he had gone down the rabbit hole. The next thing he knew, Jonathan was leaving the store with a stack of books so high he couldn't see around them.

"Not a bad present," Said Oswald. "Too bad they will have to wait a few years to use them but dusty books is a nice present nonetheless."

Bane snorted and rolled his eyes. "Forgive him for caring about the education of the bebé."

Both Roman and Victor chose not to weigh in and Victor set the box aside to be moved into the baby's room later. The next gift was Ivy's; the small gift box she had handed over on the way in along with the promise of giving their child the cure to her venom. Some kind of jewelry, based on the style of the box. Roman opened it up and his eyes lit up like a child on Christmas. "Oh, Ivy." He said and carefully lifted the necklace out for a closer look. It was silver, both the chain and the pendant which contained the image of a masterfully crafted leaf. It had been customized too, with the projected due date etched into the veins of the leaf. She must have gotten it from Harley. "This is beautiful."

"You're welcome," Ivy replied. "I know how you like shiny things."

"Like the mighty crow," Oswald said with a nod of agreement. 

Neither of them was incorrect but somehow Roman still felt the slightest twinge of offense at being compared to a crow of all things. Carefully he placed the necklace back inside the gift box and handed it over to Victor to place with the books. This left the mountain of gifts delivered by Cobblepot. Roman opted for the larger two boxes first and picked the first one up. It didn't weigh much but it was elegantly wrapped and had Victor's name scrawled in beautiful calligraphy along the side. Roman handed it over and took the box that matched it. As he has suspected, it had Roman's name written on it. He started to tear into the wrapping and when he was finally able to lay his eyes on his present, Roman felt like he had been hit by a ton of bricks. He shot Victor a quick look and saw not only did his boyfriend get into his present too, but he also looked like he'd just been hit by a truck. "...Oswald. What is this?" 

"Oh, I see you found the ones for yourselves first," Cobblepot stated with a pleased little smile. It quickly faded when he was able to recognize the looks the two were giving him as ones of disgust. "Oh, no! Don't give me that look! Those are for after, not during. I'm not a monster." 

"Imported cigars and bourbon? That's your idea of a gift for a baby shower?"

"Cigars are traditional and I know that Victor smokes so it seemed logical to me," Wasn't that still a tradition? New fathers sharing cigars? Oswald may not have counted as a new father but he could at least supply the man with the means to carry on the tradition. "And Roman has a love for expensive liquor so I thought this would be nice, his first drink when he is able to again." Months down the road when they were back from whatever private hospital Roman picked out and the baby was sleeping comfortably in their crib, and their parents were fear to indulge again. "There's something for the actual baby too. I am not an idiot."

"Debatable," Edward mumbled. 

Roman let Victor handle this one. The last remaining box, just a little bit smaller the ones that Oswald had brought with it, and the one that supposedly contained their baby's present. Seeing the look on his boyfriend's face when he got the wrapping paper off and the lid open, Roman knew he had made the right choice. "What am I looking at here?" The assassin asked. The gang leader leaned in to get a good look at the object himself and he couldn't figure it either. Whatever it was, the object inside the box was small, black and white, and glittered when the light hit it. "It's shiny." Were baby toys supposed to be shiny? 

"Perhaps what they say about pregnancy having an effect on a person's IQ is correct," Oswald whispered to Jonathan who was quick to bat him away before addressing the two confused men. "A pacifier, gentlemen, it is a pacifier."

"Just one?" Harley asked. "You know kids go through those things so easily."

"This one's different. This one is not for traditional use." 

Victor reached into the box and pulled the supposed-pacifier out for a better look. It did sort of resemble a pacifier if it was made out of mangled steel and a couple of cheap rocks...very clean, very well cut, cheap rocks that shimmered like real, actual.... "What the hell? Are those real diamonds?" 

"Well, I was certainly not going to give them one made from costume jewelry." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Diamond Pacifier is a thing. It is not for actual use, just an expensive ornament, but you look me in the eye and tell me that it isn't the kind of shit that Oswald and Roman and all of Gotham's old money would go nuts for! Check it out for yourselves if you don't believe me! https://www.babywit.com/diamond-pacifier/


	25. Chapter 25

Roman had just polished off his slice of cake when he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He set his plate down on the coffee table, pulled it out, and checked the caller ID. He raised an eyebrow when he saw who it was, "Why is Bruce calling me? I thought he was going to court to support Harvey." 

Ivy, who had been nursing her cake for all it was worth in an attempt to properly savor each and every bite, picked up a bit of icing with her fork and popped it into her mouth before responding, "He's probably just giving you an update."

It sounded reasonable. Bruce and Harvey both knew that he couldn't be there but was interested in hearing how the trial was going, how Harvey was holding up under all that pressure, and they may have been in the middle of a recess. No better way to pass the time then send him a little call and fill him in. Roman slid to answer the call, "Hey Bruce," He said with a smile that quickly disappeared. "Wait, wait, wait slow down!" He couldn't understand a word the other man was saying; it sounded like he was just firing words off rapid-fire with no effort to form a coherent sentence. "What happened?" The gang leader asked and the rest of the room went completely silent, each watching and waiting to see what was going on. They all watched as Roman's face fell completely and grabbed onto the arm of his chair to keep himself from collapsing completely. "Oh my god...oh my god! Do they know if he's going to-" The words died in Roman's throat and he choked back a sob. "I'll be there soon."

Victor waited for his employer to hang up the call before daring to ask him about it. "Roman?" 

Realizing where he was and who was sitting around him, watching him in the early stages of a breakdown, and wiped his eyes off on his sleeve. "There was an incident at the courthouse." He explained and, despite his best efforts, his voice was starting to shake. "Maroni h-he got something past security and-" Roman cut himself off and stopped for a moment, just to breathe. It felt like he was going to vomit. "Harvey's in the hospital. I have to go see him. I have to-"

"Aww fuck," Victor mumbled and wrapped an arm around Roman's shoulders to help guide him up from his chair and onto his feet. "Harley see everyone out." They were going to have to call it an early night. Roman needed to get to Gotham General and Victor was the only one who could take him there. All they could do was hope that Harvey was going to be okay, that they'd be able to see him and speak with him once they got there. 

* * *

It was easier to find Bruce than to find parking in Gotham General. Then again, all it really took was a bit of common sense and a quick jog down to the emergency room where a handful of cops were already crowded around and demanding to know where Harvey Dent was. Some waved him off as they scurried to get updates on the DA's situation, others ignored him entirely, but finally, someone barked out a room number, and Roman was off with Victor close behind him. They found Bruce sitting in the hallway outside the room where they were supposedly keeping Harvey, his head in his hands, doubled off and just trying to breathe. He was alone. Either the hospital staff had been able to hold back the hordes of cops and reporters out of protocol or they were more interested in squeezing secondhand information out of the nurses than witnessing it firsthand. "Bruce!" Roman shouted to catch his attention and the other man jerked his head up, "Bruce, what the hell happened?! Is he in there?!" 

"He's in surgery. He's been in surgery this whole time."

"What happened?!" All he knew was that Harvey had been attacked in court and that it had been pretty serious. He didn't know whether the assault had been carried out with a gun, a knife, or what, or how serious the whole thing was. Bruce hadn't wasted time getting into the specifics, just telling him that Harvey had been hurt and to get down to see him as quickly as possible. But now Roman needed to know. "Please tell me what happened-!"

"Maroni snuck a bottle of acid through security-"

"Acid!?" Out of everything that Roman had considered, acid had never been included in that last. Who the fuck used acid anymore?! A knife Roman could see someone sneaking through security. They were flat, easy to hide, and there were hundreds of places they could stow them but how did somebody sneak a bottle of such a dangerous substance into court when they were supposed to be under heavy guard? "How the fuck did he do that?! How the fuck did he get anything in! Courts are supposed to be secure! How-" Roman cut himself off. What a stupid question. Maroni had enough money that he could get whatever he wanted, it would be child's play for him to bribe some guard, some cop into letting him bring in a flask. 

Roman let out a frustrated hiss and kicked at the leg of the empty chair next to Bruce. Victor took this as a sign and walked behind Roman, wrapping his arms around him and holding him in place, allowing him time to calm down before his frustration was directed towards any more pieces or furniture or worse, people, while cops were only a couple of yards away. Roman sighed and leaned back against his boyfriend. When he spoke again, he did so much softer than before. "Whoever was working security needs to be fired." The gang leader stated. "No, no that would be too merciful, they need to be hanged-"

Bruce fired back immediately. "I recognize that you're upset Roman but if you're going to start with your death-as-the-solution bullshit then you can leave. Harvey doesn't need to hear it when he wakes up."

Victor's grip around Roman tightened but that was no not going to be enough to hold the omega back now. Roman shot the other man a glare that could reduce the weak-willed to rubble. Bruce didn't even flinch. "You know, I really can't believe you. You of all people should know that some deserve-"

"What? To die?" Bruce asked, his voice slightly raised but still eerily calm and collected so as not to attract any unwanted attention to their private conversation. "Condemning murder and then murdering the murders, do you know how ridiculous that sounds? You become just as bad as them."

"No. No, you don't." It never made sense to Roman how someone could believe that. It was that old one to save millions debate that always popped up whenever some mass incident occurred in Gotham. Like that stupid Batman rule! That was one reason the gang leader never held much respect for the bat; other than him occasionally busting in to ruin Roman's business, he always just let people go. If he was so truly concerned with cleaning up the streets of Gotham, why not let the big bads die and be done with it? It's what Roman would have done if he were so inclined. Then again the thought of him dressing up in leather and running around the city at night like some LARPer on steroids, leaving behind all methods of securing a profit, filled him with disgust and embarrassment on behalf of the masked man. But Bruce couldn't see that. Bruce, and nearly everybody else in this shitty excuse for a city, _loved_ the Batman! Maybe he was being a bit more realistic. "Not everyone can be saved Bruce-"

Bruce's response was simple but cut like a knife. "Like you?" 

Victor retracted his arms from around Roman and stalked forward with flames in his eyes. He grabbed hold of Bruce's collar and forced the other man to look up, to stare into his eyes, as he snarled, "You are out of line!" 

Before he could do anything further, Victor felt a hand on his shoulder giving him a gentle squeeze. He didn't need to look to see who it was. "No, no it's okay Victor." Roman said in his friendliest tone, the one he reserved for initial business meetings with potential allies and the press. Victor smirked and let go of Bruce, taking a step to the side so his employer could pick up where he had left off. Roman did just that; striding forward until he was just inches away from Bruce. "He's right. I'm not worth saving. That must have been why you never bothered to get back in touch after all our years apart." Communication was a two-way street. Roman may not have made any attempts to reach out to Bruce, but neither did he. Roman had spent that time building his empire, what was his excuse? He had nothing and the gang leader was not afraid to remind his old friend of that. "But at least I have a family." Bruce clenched his jaw to prevent himself from saying something else he would regret but Roman was far from done. "Does it bother you, Bruce? That I have someone devoted to me, that we're going to have a child, and you're just a miserable wretch living all alone in your McMansion unmarried, with no children, and no one to keep you company except for Alfred and the string of one-night-stands you use to drown your loneliness. Of course, it does! It has to bother you! Knowing that everything you ever wanted is just one question away, but if Harvey were to say no, that you'd lose everything. Well, you almost lost everything tonight anyway so look how that paid off for you."

The door to the room opened and a nurse carrying a clipboard close to her chest stepped out. She looked up, saw the three men standing uncomfortably close, clearly in the middle of something, and froze. "Um." She glanced between the three of them and Bruce took a slight step to the side to try and grant her some sense of ease. It seemed to work. The nurse shook her concerns away and carried on, "Mr. Dent is out of surgery. It would be beneficial if there was someone there for him when he wakes up though we are admitting them one at a time-"

"Me." Roman piped up. "I'll go first." 

"That's not-" Bruce tried to say but Roman was more than ready. 

"Are you his husband?" He asked and Bruce's face fell completely. "Fiance, boyfriend, significant other? No. Just a friend like me. So I don't see why I, in my condition, should wait around for you. Why _we_ should wait for you." He grabbed hold of Victor's head and flashed the nurse a sickeningly sweet and innocent smile, "I have been feeling a little faint since I've been pregnant. Can my boyfriend come with me please? He won't mind staying out in the hall while I go in."

The nurse just shrugged and, on that note, Roman gestured for the nurse to lead the way. 


	26. Chapter 26

Hospital staff let Roman sit with Harvey for an hour before asking him to leave so Bruce could take over. During that time, Harvey never so much as stirred. He just laid there in a drug-induced sleep, half of his face and one of his hands completely covered in thick sheets of white gauze, barely managing to breathe. If here to wake up right now, Harvey would be in no condition to speak. Part of his throat had been damaged by the acid and the doctors predicted a slight change in his vocal chords, not to mention the high levels of morphin currently pumping through him. If he were to wake up Harvey would be high and sound like he just gave blowjobs to the entire Gotham Knights football team. A nurse came in, politely informed Roman that it was time to leave, and the man put up no resistance and let her lead him out. Victor had been outside the door the whole time, ever the loyal watchdog, shooting viscious glares in Bruce's direction. He passed Roman on his way into the room but couldn't bring himself to lift his head up. Victor offered Roman his arm and his boyfriend eagerly took it and let Victor guide him along through the various narrow corridors, ignoring the swarming media parasites now converging on the scene for a good look at the DA, and into the parking garage. Neither of them said a word. Not until they were both in the car and Victor was peeling out of that dreadful place. "So," he said. "What do you want to do about Bruce?" 

"He isn't worth it." Which was Roman's disguised way of saying that he would be receiving an apology from the other man within a matter of days. He'd wait and think about what he had done, what he had said, and then Roman would get the predictable phone call. It was not something common in their friendship, but it had happened once or twice before over the years, and always played out the same way. Besides Bruce and his little frustrations didn't matter right now. "Leave him be for now, focus on taking down Maroni. His underlings, his family, anyone who ever sat next to him on a plane, no one gets out clean." A total bloodbath, a message etched in blood throughout Gotham City, a warning that you did not fuck with a friend of Roman Sionis. If Maroni thought that all his money could buy his way out of this, he was in for a rude awakening! "They have to answer for this and it needs to be with blood."

"Understood." Victor said with a nod. He was going to have quite a few new marks to carve out once their work was done. Maroni's family was one of the larger ones in the city, not to mention those in his employ, his casual business acquaintances, his friends and loved ones...it would be a gruelling task. Too much for one man, even if that man had the bloodlust of a great white shark. He was going to need a little help. "Perhaps we could make use of our little alliance? I'm sure that the others would be more than happy to engage in a little tag-team killing."

Roman smirked. What better way to cement their new arrangement then by engaging on a massive killing spree together? Some people used corporate retreats, Roman preferred torture and death. "Send the call out when we get back." 

"Boss," Victor said softly. "About what Bruce said-"

"If you think that I'm upset by that you're wrong. I have no qualms about who I am Victor. I just...It hurts hear it from him of all people." Roman Sionis was a gang leader, a respected and powerful one, and he was well aware that he was past the point of redemption in many regards. It no longer bothered him. But to hear someone he had considered a friend say that outloud, well, plainly put it still hurt. Even if it had been nothing more than a petty jab made out of frustration. "He loves Harvey, I know he does, but I can't wrap my head around how he can just take this." How he could just sit there waiting, doing nothing to stop Maroni, arguing in defense of that fucking weasel! It just didn't make sense! Somebody hurts someone you love, you make sure that they spend the rest of their miserable existence regretting it! But no, Bruce wanted to sit around and let the corrupt boys in blue try their hand at handling it. "If it were you, I'd destroy this fucking city, burn it to the ground and leave nothing but ash and he just wants to sit there and wait." No one was allowed to touch Roman's things, that was known throughout the city, and they also knew the consequences that came with breaking that rule. If it had been Victor Maroni decided to give an acid shower to, the tucker would be put through the worst kind of hell imaginable. Roman rubbed at his temples; he didn't want to think about it, about Victor going through such suffering. "Is it just me?" He asked. Maybe he was just being overdramatic again; maybe Bruce's response to Harvey's condition was the general one. 

"No," Victor replied. "You don't want to know what I would do if anything ever happened to you. That'd be it for me. I'd be done." No one would make it out of Gotham alive. Victor hadn't put much thought into it, even after Roman's kidnapping at the hands of his parents, but he knew that it would be a bloodbath. No one would be spared and then he would go down with the wretched masses of Gotham City. He wouldn't carve thousands upon thousands of little marks into his skin on that day, just one big one for the city as a whole. Speaking about his scars, and remembering their conversation from earlier, Victor decided to change the subject. "...Did I ever tell you how I started this?"

"What the killing?" Roman asked. "No." Victor had already amassed a fine collection of marks by the time he and Roman had crossed paths and the gang leader had never felt the need to ask. It was something of Victor's and his alone. Unless... "Does this have to do with your major league dreams that fucking Eddie of all people knows about?" If the reason Victor went psycho and became a contract killer was he never got to accomplish his childhood baseball dreams, Roman was going to seriously consider leaving him. Of all the stupid fucking reasons...

"Eddie's full of shit!" Victor exclaimed and tightened his grip on the wheel. Full of shit and going to get it kicked out of him the next time he and Victor crossed paths. That stupid little fucking nerd, sticking his nose where it didn't belong... "It was an invitation to watch a training camp and _maybe_ participate in some exercises. Not like I was getting drafted and I would have had to pay my own way. They sent those things out to hundreds of kids!" 

That did make more sense than someone from a Gotham public high school getting called straight to the major league but that still didn't answer one thing. "And Eddie knows about this because...?"

"When I was a junior, he was a freshman." News of that kind of thing travelled fast through the high school grapevine. Even little nerds like Eddie would have caught word of the more popular students being given such a great opportunity. "I think he was just working through those pent-up high school emotions. He was the type of kid that my friends and I used to shove into lockers." 

Roman snorted a laugh, "You were an asshole." 

"Some would argue that I still am." 

"And the reason you didn't want to tell me about is...?"

"It's embarrassing. Fuck, Roman, it was like some stupid 1950s sitcom!" When people met Victor Zsasz they saw a coldblooded killer whose only loyalty, whose only softness was devoted entirely to Roman Sionis. They saw him and they wondered what fuckdd up circumstances lead to such a creature wandering this earth in the shape of a man. So, to find out that he had lived a relatively normal and well-adjusted life prior to picking up the knife was a let down. Victor took his eyes off the road for a second, just to get a reading on his employer. Roman was looking at him, wide eyed and ready to hear more. Victor sighed. Well, at least it couldn't be any worse than the baseball thing. "My father had a high position with Koul-Brau Breweries, mom was a doctor, and my sister was big into sports like me. I taught her how to pitch. They died at the end of my junior year and for a while, I was lost. Dropped out school, burned through my inheritance, just didn't know what to do with myself so I did what every orphan in Gotham does when they lose a loved one; I got vengeance." 

A familiar narrative to anyone currently living on this side of country. "Yeah, that happens a lot in this city, doesn't it?" The amount of orphans running around trying to get revenge for their murdered parents... "Fuck, we need a grief counseling service or something..." 

Victor honestly couldn't say whether or not such a thing would make a difference so he decided to let Roman's comment lay and continue, "So, I got even. Hunted down and killed the people responsible for it and nothing happened. They were dead now, but my family wasn't back, I was still alone, and I still didn't know what I was going to do but I had learned something from all of it. That I'm good at killing, I enjoy killing, and, in my own little messed up way, I'm making this city safer by getting the worst people off the streets." 

"You're a regular Batman Victor." Roman replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "So that was it then? Puppy got a taste for blood?" He teased and reached over to pat Victor's cheek, earning him the faintest of smiles from the other man. "Where'd your ritual come from?"

It was hard to say. It shouldn't have been, Victor knew that, but he had been doing it for so long now it just seemed like something that had always been. He had always made the marks after a kill, always known how to make them deep enough to stay but not so deep that they ran the risk of bleeding out. It felt like learning to swim or ride a bike; it had been picked up, perfected over time, but looking back it was impossible to say when everything suddenly clicked together. "I don't really know. I just know that I have special places." Reserved spots like his chest. The marks there were all from carrying out Roman's hits. "When Richard dies, I'm going to carve a mark for him right above my heart, just for you."

Roman grinned and leaned over to press a quick kiss to Victor's cheek, more than pleased with that remark. "Aren't you a romantic?" He asked but there was something else on his kind. Another question he _needed_ answers to. "...Was the baseball thing before or after your parents?"

Victor sighed. He was never going to live this down. Fuck, he was going to kill Eddie the next time he saw him! "Before." 

"So why'd you say no?" 

"It was the _Red Sox_." Victor replied, his face twisting up with pure, utter disgust. " _Fucking Red Sox_! Ma told me if I dared to go, she'd disown me. 'Zalia and Pops agreed with her." They were a Yankees family. 

Even without an intimate knowledge of sports and the rivalries between teams, Roman couldn't help but laugh at that. Laugh and see about scoring Victor some tickets to see a team he actually enjoyed. They were about five minutes from The Black Mask Club; Victor was about to turn down their street when Roman placed on of his hands on top of his on the wheel. "Wait." He said. "Let's not go back yet."

Roman didn't...want to go home? Victor had thought that after everything his employer would want nothing more than to just throw himself into bed and sleep. Or take a long, hot bath with one of those bath bombs he loved so much. "You don't want to check and make sure Harley actually got everyone out?" 

"I...trust her." Roman said and immediately went to correct himself when he realized how ridiculous that sounded after everything that had happened between them. "For now, I trust her and I have an idea." 

"Okay. Shoot." 

"Let's go to the airport and get the first flight we can to Vegas."

"You want to go to Vegas?" Victor had to ask just to make sure he wasn't hearing things. Roman wanted to go to Vegas, last minute, on tonight of all nights with everything going regarding Harvey, Maroni, and the baby?! "You know they have gambling in Atlantic City and it's closer-"

"No," Roman interrupted him. "That's not what I want to go to Vegas for." 

"Why else does anyone want to go to Vegas?" 

"To get married, of course."


	27. Chapter 27

If Victor hadn't been paying attention to the road, he may have swerved the rolls into a nearby telephone pole. To prevent totalling the car and ending up back in Gotham General's emergency room Victor pulled over to the side of the road. Had he heard Roman right? He couldn't have. This couldn't have been happening. He had to have been hearing things. "...You want to get married?"

"Yes." Roman said with a confident nod. 

"This...this is serious. You're being serious." 

"Does it look like I'm joking?" 

No, Roman looked completely straight-faced sitting next to him, staring over at his employer and waiting to see how Victor was handling his newest demand. Zsasz had really thought that Roman had been improving with his sudden desires; that he had been learning not to just spring stuff on Victor out of the middle of nowhere and to build up to things. Guess he was wrong. That was assuming, of course, that this was really happening and Victor wasn't having some strange dream. "We'd have to pack-"

Roman snorted a laugh and waved Victor's concern away, "Fuck it, we'll just buy everything we need in Vegas." What was the point of being filthy rich if you couldn't enjoy it through spontaneous trips to lavish locations? 

"Oh my god..." They'd gotten into a car wreck on the way back from the hospital and Victor was currently hallucinating on pain meds. That was the only way this could make sense. There was no way that _Roman Fucking Sionis_ wanted to _elope_ in Sin City! "You want to get married in Vegas. With, like, Elvis?"

"Why not?" Roman asked with a shrug. A dazzling metropolis infamous for sex, drugs, parties, and glittering lights, it seemed like a dream-come-true to him. If they ever had to leave Gotham for good, Las Vegas was at the top of Roman's list of acceptable places to live. The gang leader was like the city personified! 

"And not, just to be clear, a big and lavish wedding that you could plan out and invite people to." In other words, a fancy and expensive party where Roman could go all out and show off his hosting skills. 

"Nope." Roman replied, drawing it out and placing an extra emphasis on the _p_. "I just want to get married." 

Victor felt his heart skip a beat and instinctively tightened his grip on the steering wheel. Oh god, this was real! This was really happening! "Let's go! Let's do it! Let's get married!" 

"A couple of days in Vegas," Roman stated with a smile. "All the glittering lights, Elvis..." If Victor insisted that is. If left to his own devices regarding wedding planning Roman was going to 'accidentally' select an officiant who was not some actor in a cheap costume doing an impersonation. 

"You paint a pretty picture," Victor had to admit it sounded incredible. Nothing too extravagant, where Victor would feel less like a groom and more like a prop, where the only things that mattered were him and Roman. But there was still the elephant in the room that needed to be addressed if they were going to be traveling. "What about your boy?" 

"Bruce isn't going to leave his side. Not until he wakes up." Someone would be there for him when Harvey woke up, that was what was important. And if Roman had to wait for his turn to see him, so be it. "I'll call in. Just to make sure he's okay but-"

"You're not doing all of this to avoid Bruce, are you? Because we could just kill him-"

"No! No, to both." Roman insisted but Victor seemed unconvinced. He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. "Don't give me that look. I mean it." Victor was still unconvinced so Roman decided to change up his tactics. "I love you." 

"I love you too." 

"So let's go! Grab the next available flight down, find a nice hotel, and just take some time for ourselves! The others can handle things here, Harley can give us updates while we're gone, and I can check in with Harvey! There is nothing stopping us from doing this!" 

"Alright then! Let's do it! Let's get hitched!" 

* * *

Roman had sat with Harvey for an hour without the man in question so much as stirring and Bruce was going on to his second hour with the same results. He understood that it was going to take time, that Harvey wasn't going to be up and moving so soon after his assault, but there was nothing that Bruce wouldn't have given just to see one of his hands twinge or have him shift in his sleep, something to prove that Harvey was still there with him and he wasn't starring at a wall. Visiting hours were going to be wrapping up soon but a couple of bills in Bruce's wallet assured him that he would be able to stay next to his friend for as long as he needed. The one good thing about sitting in a blank hospital room with nothing to do than wait for a sign that may or may not happen that night was that it allowed Bruce time to think. About Harvey, about Roman, about everything. 

He'd really fucked up this time, didn't he? 

The billionaire pulled his phone out of his pocket and went to his contacts. He searched for a second before stumbling upon Roman's cellphone number (the photo he had next to the number was an old one from their 8th grade trip to Boston. One that Roman hated because he'd still had braces which glittered when the camera's flash went off) and was about to hit the button to call when he got a text. 

_Are you going out tonight?_

Barbara. She had been running patrol over by the docks tonight with the understanding that Bruce would meet up with her towards midnight when he was out of court. He replied quickly, _I can't_. She must have heard about what happened by now. 

She got back to him in seconds. _Bruce, I get that you want to be there for him but you have work to do_. 

_I'm not leaving him like this. Not when he needs me._ He thought back to what had happened earlier with Roman, with everything that the other man had been going through lately. Suddenly he felt like an asshole. _You don't turn your back on a friend_.

 _Right_. Barbara messaged back. _Well, if we get in over our heads, can we still count on you for back up?_

_Yeah. That would be fine_.

Bruce waited for a second, just to make sure that Barbara was done texting him for the moment, before taking a deep breath and pressing the call button next to a picture of himself at age thirteen, gangly and awkward, standing in front of the bandstand at Boston Common, throwing up a peace sign behind a boy with frosted tips and a grin full of metal. He waited as it rang, and rang, and rang, before finally just giving up and patching him through to Roman's answering machine. Somehow this was worse than the other man actually picking up; somehow it was even harder for Bruce to get the words out. "Hey Roman." Bruce started off simple. "I know you don't want to talk to me right now, and I don't blame you but I want to apologize. Emotions were running high, I took my frustration about everything out on you, and it just wasn't fair. I'm sorry and if you don't want to hear from me anymore, I understand, but I wanted you to know that I'm going to finally listen to some of your advice. You were right about one thing when we fought earlier for certain." He had almost lost everything. What was the point in hesitating when everything he'd ever wanted could be taken away in the blink of an eye? He had to try. The least that Bruce could do was try. "Call me back when you get this please."


	28. Chapter 28

The later it got in the evening the less frequent customers stopped in which suited Jenna just fine. Ever since Brad had quit back in May, management had been unable to find someone to take his place and she been running ragged trying to keep up with the store. If they didn't pay above minimum wage, and the tips weren't huge, the twenty-three-year-old would have followed Brad on his way out. You wouldn't expect a hole-in-the-wall jewelry store to be so popular but then again the city was known for quickie weddings that ended in annulment within 24 hours and there was no better way to get into a showgirl's heart than with something shiny so the joke was on her. Most of the people who frequented the establishment were spread out among the casinos, the buffets, and the topless bars come sundown so it really became a matter of cleaning up the place, trying on a bracelet that would cost her an entire month's salary to pay for, and having the occasional smoke. Ever since the cameras were busted a couple of months back (and management were dragging their asses in fixing them), night shifts had become Jenna's favorite time to go to work. But even then she was subject to the occasional straggler who opted to explore little local places rather than try their luck on the slot machines. In this case, it was a man, not unattractive by any major means but definitely not Jenna's type with that ugly striped shirt he was wearing and that short, obviously bleached blond hair. Then again, he did look like the usual type of scuzzball who wandered in looking for some cheap ring to get into a dancer's pants so Jenna put on her best customer service smile and put her cigarette out under the counter, "Can I help you with anything?"

The man looked up from the display case he'd been admiring and Jenna felt a chill roll down her spine. This guy had to be in the Hells Angels or something. He was covered from head to toe in scars, Jenna could even see a couple of them peeking out from underneath his shirt collar. "I'm looking for a wedding ring." He explained. "Our marriage is being a little...sped up so I haven't had time to actually look."

"No problem," So she was dealing with a legitimate couple? That was a nice change in pace. Even if they were probably bikers or goons for the mafia or something. That meant money and a nice big tip in her blazer pocket at the end of the day. "What kind of engagement ring did you use?"

"No engagement ring. We just sort of hopped on a plane and came here." Saying it out loud made it sound so much worse than it actually was. Like they were drunk or high and just doing this for shits and giggles; like they didn't have any other options and _had_ to get married in some quickie ceremony in some dirt-cheap little chapel, like this wasn't a matter of personal choice. "But we've been together for nearly a decade."

Oh. Jenna knew exactly what this was. She had been working in the jewelry business long enough to see a couple of _these guys_ come in looking for something. So it was going to be a cheap ring after all. "I see. Let me ask you something, and I mean no offense when I saw this, but is your partner pregnant?"

The man straightened up and shot the saleswoman a glare that could have reduced anyone weaker to ash. Luckily for Jenna, she had been working retail long enough to learn how to deflect venomous customers completely. "That has nothing to do with this." 

There it was. If Jenna ever got fired from this place she needed to go into the psychic business. "That's what the last guy said." She remarked but she could work with this. There was still hope for getting that big tip yet! "Does your partner have a taste for gold or silver?" 

"Diamonds." The man answered and turned his attention back to the rings that they had in the display case. Most of their display models were basic, plain wedding bands, the type that was suitable for a fast wedding and wouldn't set a guy back too badly, but there were still a couple that made use of gemstones if that was the way people wanted to go though wedding bands, typically, were more traditional. "Something that sparkles." 

"That's usually an engagement ring-"

"This one." The man cut her off and pointed to a ring stowed away towards the back of the case. "I'll need it in a 10 and 11 & 1/2."

Jenna walked over behind the display case to check and see the ring that had caught the man's eye. It was definitely sparkly, that was for damn sure, but the ring that man was currently pointing at was one that Jenna had never expected to leave the store. "The Paloma?" She asked, wanting to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. The man nodded and looked at her expectantly. This had to be some sort of joke, right? Or maybe he didn't know how much it was. Yeah, that had to be it. He had to think that the stones were glass or cubic zirconia and not real diamonds! Well, Jenna could help him with that. "Sir, this ring is white gold! The combined weight of it's carats is 4.59 pounds! You can't seriously-"

"Money is no issue." Was all the man said in response. "The 10 and the 11 & 1/2 please."

It was going to be interesting explaining to her boss how she made a $72,400 sale to a possible mafia member but fuck it. Whatever got the guy out of the store fast enough while leaving the most money in her pocket. Jenna nodded and headed into the back to pull out the requested rings. All they had in stock for the requested Paloma's melody five-band, white gold ring was a 10 and a 12 but a quick fix with the white-out and a sharpie would have everything up to par. Lucky for the man in question, the store also did readjustments so when his size 11 & 1/2 seemed a little too loose they could adjust that for him. For a minimal fee of course. She stepped back out into the showroom and set the two ring boxes down on the counter in order to grab the credit card machine out from underneath. She assumed it was going to be on credit. No man, even in Las Vegas, walked around with 80k in their back pocket. "Credit card then?" 

"No." The man replied and Jenna saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked up just in time to see the barrel of a gun before the man pulled the trigger and blew her head off. The man slid his gun back into his coat, along with the two ring boxes. "Shoulda learned some customer service skills." He told the girl before turning heel and leaving. When the owners discovered the girl's body the next morning police would classify it as a robbery gone wrong and a tragedy that the store's security cameras had been damaged. Without that footage, it would be nearly impossible to find the guy responsible. 

* * *

Victor had slept during the entire flight. Roman didn't know how he did it; his fiance could fall asleep just about anywhere, in any position, and wake up feeling like he got the most relaxing eight hours the next morning. While the other man slept Roman took advantage of the plane's free wifi to book them a place to stay while they were out of town. No sense in landing and not knowing where they could go, spending the early morning hours bouncing from hotel to hotel in hopes of landing an acceptable empty room. The Bellagio had been nice the last time he'd visited Sin City. They'd need a penthouse suite, of course, with a nice view of the strip. Even if it was last minute, Roman was not going to settle for anything less than than the best. When that was done, he set about looking for a place where they could have the ceremony. The gang leader spent the flight searching through various websites for possible venues, comparing prices and different packages, and getting everything ready for when they landed. He ended up booking them two weeks; that gave them time to rest after getting off the plane, scour the city for everything they were going to need to get hitched, and some time to themselves afterward (sort of a starter honeymoon because unless it was somewhere tropical like Fiji or The Bahamas, Roman wasn't going to count it). Even with all the time he'd spent sleeping on the plane, Victor seemed to appreciate it. They both crashed as soon as they got to the suite, only waking up to order room service to eat when they got hungry, and almost immediately slipping back into sleep once they finished eating. Once they had caught up on their sleep, both men set out into the city to take care of what needed to be done if they were going to get married within the week. Surprisingly, Victor didn't put up much of a fight. He was up to something, Roman could tell, but he had things to do so he'd worry about that later. 

If only it was that simple. 

Having a natural sense of style, Roman had taken it upon himself to handle their wardrobe. Victor was easy to shop for; the man preferred basic black suits and those ugly striped shirts after all so as long as he hadn't gone up or down a size, since the last time Roman had purchased clothes for him there wouldn't be any problems with him but then there was the issue of Roman himself. To his absolute horror, _nothing looked good!_ He must have tried on thirty different suits of various colors and designs but _nothing felt right!_ After changing into a white suit that had looked absolutely stunning on the mannequin but like a stitched up pillowcase in the mirror, Roman realized he couldn't handle this on his own. He needed a second opinion and he couldn't turn to Victor for this one. He needed the opinion of someone with some traces of style. The gang leader pulled his phone out his pants pocket, selected the facetime app, and made a call. The recipient picked up after a couple of seconds of letting it ring. "Romy? Where ya been? We didn't hear back from you the other night and you haven't been at the club-"

Shit! Roman knew he had been forgetting something in their haste to get the fuck out of Gotham...oh well. Couldn't do anything about it now. "I'm in Vegas." He explained. "Not important right now. Listen, I need your opinion on something." Roman zoomed out so that the clown could get a good look at him and what he had on. "Does the white work? White is traditional but with the bump I feel that the white makes me look-"

"Fat." Another person on Harley's end filled in and Roman actually jumped, 

"Oh shit, Ivy! I didn't know you were there." 

Harley adjusted the camera on her end so her green companion was now in the shot. The girls looked comfortable; they were dressed in their pajamas and Ivy was nursing a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. She offered a little wave before going in for another spoonful, "For the record, the white does look tighter on you-"

"Ives!" Harley screamed and gave the other woman a shove. 

"I knew it!" Roman shouted. 

"But that's because you're five months pregnant so it doesn't really count," Ivy added with a slight shrug of her shoulders and continued eating her ice cream as if it was nothing. "Let's see the black?"

Without disconnecting the call Roman set his phone back down on the ottoman he'd stashed his clothes on, camera facing away from him, and rushed to get changed. So white was out of the question. No big deal. He had plenty of white suits back home and it wasn't like they were sticking to traditions when it came to this wedding. He grabbed the first black suit that appeared in the mass he'd collected and swapped it out with the white one before picking his phone back up and showing it off. "This is the black."

Ivy looked him over from top to bottom, "Not bad." She stated. "I definitely prefer it over the white but maybe try for a dark blue, like a navy to bring out your eyes?"

"Yes!" Roman exclaimed. "Dark blue!" Why hadn't he thought of that?! He tossed his phone back onto the ottoman and scrambled to get undressed. 

Even with their view of the man obscured, the girls kept talking. Roman's situation at the moment struck them both as suspicious and there were still a ton of questions left unanswered like the giant elephant in the room that Harley decided to shoot first, "So what are you in Vegas for anyway?" 

"I'm getting married," Roman nonchalantly answered as he fumbled to undo the buttons on the pale red button-up he'd worn underneath the black suit jacket. "And then me and Victor are going to hang around here for a few days. I had to get out of that city. The Gotham air was suffocating me!"

Ivy nearly choked on her latest spoonful of ice cream. "You proposed to your boyfriend and fast-tracked a wedding just to get out of Gotham for a few weeks?... Respect."

"It wasn't just to get out of Gotham. I was going to marry Victor someday. Why not now?"

Harley sighed and massaged her temples. Why did this feel like deja vu to her? Oh, right, because she had counseled Roman over a similar situation just a few months ago and he seemed to be doing better since then but here he was, relapsing back to his old behaviors. In retrospect, Harley should have been proud of the man for making it this long. "Honey, I thought we worked through you proposing life-changing things out of the middle of nowhere."

"What?" Ivy asked looking between the two of them. "Wait, Victor knows he's getting married right?"

"He knows!" Roman insisted. "She's just talking about how he found out about the baby but this time was different. I was direct. No hinting around, no way of him misreading the situation." No way of misconstruing what Roman was trying to ask, no confusion, no hurt feelings. He'd done a pretty damn good job of getting them to Vegas if he did say so himself! 

Harley was not convinced but she knew better than to get into an argument with a man who was on the other side of the country via shoddy Facetime connection. "Okay." 

While he was preoccupied with finding the right button up to go with navy (he ended up selecting white. White looked good with anything), Roman took the time to ask a couple of questions of his own, starting with his the most generic. "How's things in Gotham?" He'd only been gone for a little over a day but in that town anything was possible. You blinked and suddenly half the city was destroyed, zombies were wandering the streets, and Batman was eloping with Beyonce! 

The two women exchanged a troubled look, one that would have been noticed by Roman if he weren't in the middle of getting changed and had his back to his phone. Ivy set her half-empty bowl of ice cream down on Harley's coffee table and folded her hands together in her lap. "...it's had its ups and downs." She stated. "Good news is thanks to our little alliance nobody's losing any ground!"

"Oh! That is good! What's the bad news?"

"We're not gaining any either," Harley admitted. "New guy sprung up overnight and has been making a play for all of Maroni's pieces."

"You're kidding." New rogues were popping up in Gotham all the time but it always took time for them to become successful. They'd make their glamorous debut, get their butt kicked by one of the various vigilantes that called the city their home, retreat into hiding for a couple of months to properly carve out their identity, retool their brand, put together a crew, and get enough gear to pull off a successful heist. Someone coming into power overnight, that simply wasn't heard of. Even Roman needed a few months to build up his reputation as Black Mask. "What's Maroni think about all this?"

"Maroni disappeared from custody this morning."

"Oh my god..." The corruption of the Gotham police force struck again. How much did the old bastard pay to get out of trouble this time? Had to be a considerable chunk of change considering he now had assault charges on top of all the other shit. Assault of a public figure, no less! "Do you think he'll go after Harvey?"

"That's-" Harley elbowed Ivy hard in the side and the other woman quickly changed her tone. "No. No, Harvey is safe." 

"Harley, would you mind just keeping an eye on him for me? Make sure that the nurses are treating him right?" Roman would have asked Ivy but 1) there was no way that hospital staff would let Poison Ivy in to see a man she had attempted to kill in the past and 2) even if she were to get past all of the security, the nurses, and the doctors, and make it into Harvey's room there was no way he was going to be happy when he woke up and found his ex.girlfriend just sitting there watching him (talk about an unwelcome surprise!) so clown-girl it was! 

"Yeah...No problem."

"Thank you." With Maroni out there they couldn't be too careful. The old bastard never liked to leave things half-finished and he'd want to be the one to take the overeager young DA out for himself. Someone needed to keep an eye on Harvey. "I'll make it up to you. When you get married, the whole thing is on me! I am giving you my permission to go completely nuts!"

"Hey, all I need is a chocolate fountain and I'm happy!" Well, a chocolate fountain and a bomb-ass wedding dress! Something that made her look like both a Disney princess at the climax of her movie and a punk rockstar about to shoot the most explosively awesome music video of all time; something that would absolutely sweep up at the VMAs! Dress shopping with Roman with those guidelines in mind was going to be a fucking adventure and Harley was tempted to rush an engagement just to go! 

Roman was not about to let Harley get off with just a chocolate fountain and a weird wedding dress but they'd worry about it when the clown was actually getting ready to walk down the aisle. He finished changing, pulled on the navy blue suit jacket on, and buttoned it, then checked himself out in the mirror. Ivy had been right, the navy really brought out the sparkle in his eyes, while being dark enough his change in weight wouldn't be as obvious in pictures. Simply put he looked fucking stunning! The gang leader picked his phone back up and grinned at the impressed _oohs_ and _aahs_ the girls made upon seeing him. Yep. This was it. This was the one. "Alright. I gotta go. Thanks for the help." He said and offered the two of them a small wave before ending the call. He clicked out of the app and sighed when he saw that he had four missed calls all from the same number. Fucking Bruce. Roman may have been expecting an apology but this seemed a tad excessive. Well, Roman wasn't going to be so forgiving this time; he could leave his old friend hanging for a little while. 

He'd listen to the messages and call him back when he and Victor left Vegas. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took a little longer to write out than I originally anticipated but these Vegas chapters have required a bit of research on my part. I had to look up hotels, find a ring that Victor would want to give Roman (which is a beautiful design too. Give it a google if you're interested in seeing it), and look at some examples of vows. So if you want a hint about what's to come in the next chapter...there it is ;)
> 
> Enjoy!


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up this chapter gets a little dicey in one area :P

_It was hard to find meaningful employment in Gotham. For a city that was bursting at the seams with billionaires and fortune five hundred companies, there was a lot of turn-over due largely in part to the high crime rates. Part-time retail positions, factory jobs, temp work at Wayne Corp, there were plenty of those positions available but nothing that you could pay off student loans or support a family on. And people wondered why more and more "normal" individuals were turning to organized crime to make a living. That hadn't been why Victor got started but collecting a nice, fat paycheck whenever he was contracted to off somebody didn't hurt. What was that old saying? "If you're good at something never do it for free?" Well, Victor had been doing it for free long enough. After the first couple of bodies started popping up, faces peeled, heads scalped, eyes gouged out, he'd started to build up a nice little reputation around the city and the offers started to fly in. At first, he'd laughed at the idea and enjoyed a nice, quiet evening of mutilating the everloving fuck out of the unfortunate muscle that Maroni had sent over to his place with a blank check. The thing with all those gang leaders though, the second they found out that they couldn't have something it became their macguffin, their forbidden fruit, and they'd step over their own mothers to get it. Within a month Victor had worked his way through seven armed men delivered to him by the biggest crooks in the city. So what made him crack and accept an assignment? Things got boring and the gangsters learned. Instead of sending over some muscle with a briefcase full of cash, Galante sent one of his assassins with a curved knife and a name. Curiosity got the better of him and Victor tagged along. He remembered nearly everything about that first kill; the way the man screamed and thrashed, the way he tried to use his kids as leverage, as proof that he was a decent human being who didn't deserve to die, the ease he had when he used that knife for the first time to slice perfect cuts along his face, tossing the body into Gotham Harbour while, not even five blocks away, the city celebrated the arrival of the new millennium. Victor remembered everything except for the man's name._

_For five years he'd been bouncing around the city, answering the calls of the most feared gangsters and taking care of any thorns that popped up in their little metaphorical flower gardens. If they knew that Victor wasn't exclusive to one of them, no one dared to bring up in meetings. Whoever had a job and was willing to pay, that was who Victor answered to so when he got a call from an associate from a previous job detailing a new hit with a legendary payout, Victor couldn't get across town to the meet-up spot fast enough. They'd agreed on Galante's restaurant; this cheesy little Italian place out of the way with brick walls, little candles in empty wine bottles, and maps of Italy covering the walls. Victor entered, gave the matradee a nod of acknowledgment, and made his way back into the kitchen and down to the basement where the others were waiting. His eyes fell on a man who towered over the rest and he grinned, "_ _H_ _ey Happy!" He called out and caught the other man's attention. The other man grinned in response,_

_"Victor! Man, been too long!" Not since they took down Falcone's son-in-law in this brilliant sting op. There were some obvious benefits to working with a man who could have made the NFL; Happy held the much older man down while Victor did his thing and by supper time that night, Falcone was stumbling drunk into his dining room where he found the guy sans one face and tongue duck-taped to his usual place at the table. Happy strode towards him and clapped the other alpha affectionately on the shoulder. "Look at you, actually got hair on your face! You no longer look like the punk trying to take my kid sister to the prom!"_

_"And you still look like a gorilla on steroids!" Victor fired back, earning himself a round of booming laughter from his old associate. He had been expecting to see a familiar face at this thing but he hadn't been counting on Happy. What luck! He could always count on the big guy to set him straight and not feed him the usual bullshit that surrounded these assignments. "What's this about anyway?"_

_"Did you actually look at the job before accepting?" Happy asked and Victor just shrugged. The guy he'd spoken to on the phone kept it brief and he hadn't felt the need to press him for information. Sensing that Victor had no idea who had come here to kill, Happy decided to connect the dots for him. "Get this; 250K each for Bertinelli."_

_Victor's eyes narrowed into a cautious glare. "Which Bertinelli?" Certainly, they couldn't be going after the big guy? One of his brothers? One of the in-laws? Whoever it was, they were going to risk immediate reprisal going after anyone connected to the Bertinelli family._

_"All the Bertinellis." Happy replied. "250K a head. Don't stop until each little leaf is cut from the family tree."_

_Well, that was one way to avoid reprisal. It sounded a little...fantastical for Victor's tastes but stranger things had happened; maybe if they could find a way to get all of them in the same room they could wipe them out in one fell swoop- but wait a second, didn't the head of the Bertinelli family have a family? Was Victor to assume that they'd be price-tagged too? "The Kids?"_

_"Yeah, them too. Got a problem with that?"_

_Victor shrugged, "I never killed a kid before." He admitted. Women, yes; men, definitely, but all of his victims had been old enough to vote. It wasn't a conscious decision he made every time he answered the call or went out for a quick hunt along the waterfront, it just so happened that all of his tally marks had been for people old enough to drive. It felt...strange to be thinking about offing some kid. He could do it, Victor knew that, but the idea of dragging it out, of peeling off their tiny faces and carving out their eyes was putting him on edge. He'd make it quick for them then, knowing Galante they were going to be using guns for this anyway, so he could just lose himself in the carnage and block out their faces._

_Happy seemed to have the same idea because he patted Victor on the shoulder again. "You'll be fine. Plan is to line 'em all up and just mow 'em down. Not like you're going to be putting a barrel between their eyes."_

_"Galante organized this?"_

_"Sorta. There's this new guy...got a lot of money and trying to crack into the Gotham Underworld. He's funding this whole thing."_

_"He's funding Galante wiping out the Bertinellis?" Victor had seen a couple of alliances go down in his five years in the business but he'd never heard of anything like this. Whoever this new guy was, he was going to be taken for all he was worth if he thought tossing his money around like this was a good idea. It wasn't like Galante didn't have the cash to fund this shit himself. If he wanted Bertinelli dead, he could make it happen! So then, why even bother bringing in the new guy? "Why? What does he get out of this?"_

_"Partnership with Galante, connections to a couple of thugs like us for future business endeavors," Happy listed off but those were only small fish. He'd been in this business long enough to know exactly what this new guy wanted to get out of this deal and why it was his first foray into the organized crime racket. "A name. People won't know how he got so huge so quick but they'll know his name and that is worth something."_

_"What is his name?"_

_"Black Mask."_

_"Black Mask," Victor repeated, mulling it over. "That's not scary. Thought these aliases were supposed to make you sound scary. Black Mask...just sounds like he was drawing words from a hat." If he hadn't even bothered to put the effort in on his name, how serious about going professional could the guy be? Had to be one of those copycats; someone who saw the Riddler or Bane or Poison Ivy on the news and got ideas._

_"Just wait. And keep your mouth shut. He's got a bit of a temper." Happy instructed him and as if on cue the basement door opened and a man came striding down the basement steps. It took Victor a couple of seconds to realize what he was looking at; a young man, tall and slender, with an elegant stride dressed to the nines in what had to have been a custom-made suit, with what looked to be a heavy mask charred black completely covering his head and giving him the illusion of having just a skull. He walked along past them, circling around the men already assembled in the basement like a hungry shark circled its prey, giving each and every one of them a quick once-over. Despite himself, Victor felt a chill roll down his spine. So much for the Black Mask not being scary. When he passed Victor for the third time the alpha allowed himself to close his eyes for a second, just to catch his breath, and he caught the faintest trace of the other man's scent; bourbon and leather, with underlying traces of an almost sickeningly peaches and cream. He was an omega then. That was interesting. An omega who carried himself around with the confidence of an alpha._

_"Gentlemen," Black Mask finally spoke and Victor was not surprised to find out that he had a voice that was like honey, so smooth and inviting. "It is a pleasure to be working with all of you. Needless to say you each came highly recommended." Victor didn't know why his heart fluttered upon hearing that. He that his skills were becoming revered around the city, that to someone like Black Mask who was trying to carve out a name for himself Victor Zsasz was going to pop up on a list of key figures to form allies out of, but he would be lying if Victor said that hearing Black Mask say out loud didn't give his ego a nice, long stroke. "Now, I know that Galante has given you the rundown on what is to happen but seeing as I am paying for everything I felt the need to introduce myself-" The man standing to Victor's right stifled a laugh and the assassin felt his heart leap up into his throat as all the air was sucked out of the room. Black Mask stopped and backtracked over to the man in question, "Is there something funny Mister Lucian?"_

_"Eh, it's nothing-" Lucian mumbled in a poor attempt to back peddle but Black Mask was not having it,_

_"By all means, I insist." Black Mask said with the slight wave of his hand. "Go on."_

_Lucian looked between the men gathered around him seeking assistance that he would never find. The man then directed his attention back to the man in the mask standing in front of him and he forced an awkward little chuckle, "Well, I guess we all know how you got in with Galante, eh? He likes the omegas, and he likes 'em young and pretty." There was a reason the boys referred to the gangster's restaurant as Italian Hooters. It was one stripper pole away from becoming a club with the strangest theme of all time and was always littered with the most beautiful creatures in Gotham. Victor tended not to think about that side of the business but even he had noticed that every time he met with Galante in person some new pretty thing was sitting in the old man's lap feeding him some of those overprocessed meatballs he kept on the menu. More than once Galante had offered Victor payment in the form of company from one of those poor wretches and he was willing to take a stab and bet that the others recruited for this little mission had also received that offer and, just because Victor had said no each and every time the offer came up, did not mean that his cohorts gave the same answer. For all anyone knew the man in the mask before them could have been an old, erm, acquaintance of Galante. That must have been why Lucian suddenly felt secure in himself enough to reach out and caress Black Mask's cheek. "That gotta be why you're hiding your face, am I right? Don't want any of us to recognize you from around the boss's place. There's no need to be shy, sweetheart."_

_Black Mask didn't say a word in response. Rather he reached back to undo the mechanisms keeping his mask in place and allowed it to tumble off and onto the floor, revealing his face to the entire room for the first time. That flutter Victor felt in his chest when Black Mask had complimented their services returned. Beside him Happy let out a soft gasp that did not match with the man's general appearance entirely. Lucian went as white as a ghost and his hands started to shake. The others in their little group fell completely silent, eyes wide and their mouths agape. Every one of them knew who he was; they'd seen his family at charity events, his name branded on the sides of public buildings and parks, his face spread across various gossip magazines detailing his various escapades around the city with his wealthy friends. "_ _Holy shit..." Lucian managed to spit out. "You're-"_

_Before he could finish that remark Black Mask sprung into action; he pulled a small blade out from up his sleeve and in one quick and precise movement used it to slice Lucian's throat open. The man tumbled to the cold cement floor, twisting and thrashing for a few moments, attempting to scream out but being unable to make any sounds other than gurgles as he choked on his own blood, before finally succumbing. One of the others in their group, one of the ones who had been stunned into silence, took a couple of steps towards the man's body. "Nobody move." Black Mask snapped. "You want to get paid or you want your throat slit too?" The other man quickly fell back in line prompting a smirk from the man in charge. "Thought so."_

_Black Mask knelt down and picked his mask up off the floor, taking the time to brush away any dust that may have dared to collect on it during it's short time away from it's owner. "You see boys, I always had a fascination for masks. A real taste for them. They mean so many things, offer us protection and at the same time are a hindrance. Everyone wears a mask and if you look close enough, you can find your way beneath it." He stood back up and delivered a good, swift kick to the dead man's side."Take your friend here. An idiot with the IQ of a butternut squash making himself as your generic tough-guy thug. Well, safe to say that his mask has cracked, him?"_

_"If that was supposed to be some sort of joke no one laughed. Black Mask didn't seem to mind. His gaze landed on Victor who felt his heart speed up inside his chest. "You." He said and pointed just to make sure that no one was confused. "Take care of the body and then meet us back here. I am not going to repeat the plan all night."_

_Victor shifted awkwardly. Fuck, hearing this guy barking orders and slicing throats shouldn't have been this goddamn alluring! Not even two days ago Victor was scoffing at the latest gossip rag detailing the latest love affair of the very man- no, the very kid standing before him and cracking remarks about how spoiled and entitled his entire social circle was. And now...well...Victor was just grateful he had decided not to wear his favorite pair of skinny jeans to this meeting or else they'd be dealing with an entirely new problem. "Yes, uh..." Should he call him by his alias? Should he call him by his given name?_

_"Call me Boss." The Black Mask, Roman Sionis, replied with a smirk and Victor felt his heart flutter for the third time that day._

_This wasn't good._

* * *

"It's a goddam cliche but it was completely unavoidable. Love at first sight." It had taken Victor far longer than it should have to realize that. Months of waiting by the phone for Roman to call him for a job, of bending over backwards to impress him with his work, of ignoring the calls from other gang leaders until finally they just wrote him off as a lost cause; months of wondering why his heart fluttered whenever his employer complimented his loyalty, his skill; and months of trying to understand why he wanted to rip apart anyone whoever dared to look at Roman for longer than fifteen seconds. "I had never seen someone, or anything, quite like it. Someone who commanded the room with their mere presence, who was in such a state of control, you'd think they were capable of destroying the world just with the way they carried themself. Someone who made destruction so beautiful." Suddenly everything he did was for Roman, Roman was the only one he'd answer to, and was the only thing that Victor could think about. "It was love. Head over heels, completely and utterly devoted love. I knew from that second that I needed to take care of you. That the world would tremble and turn to rubble beneath our feet if we were together. I had a real purpose after so many years of nothing." And that purpose was to care for Roman, to keep him in one piece and to keep him happy. Victor's own needs, his own happiness, it all took a backseat to him, but the alpha didn't mind in the slightest. He was happy when Roman was happy and when he was standing there in front of Victor, smiling and looking at him like he was the centre of the universe, Victor knew that he had made the right choice. Well, the right choice regarding his decision to follow Roman, but his choice not to censor himself when writing his marriage vows may not have been the best move. Victor cast a quick glance to the man standing next to them and forced an awkward chuckle, "Sorry, Elvis. You okay?"

The officiant shrugged and if he had been bothered by Victor's remarks, neither of them could tell thanks to the thick sunglasses he'd been donning. "Buddy, you know how many mobsters come through here who forget to PG-up their vows? Yours ain't the worst." So long as neither of them went into detail about killing somebody, it was a success on the officiant's part. He turned his attention towards the other man standing before him and grinned, "Your turn now Doll."

Roman took a deep breath before beginning, "I have to admit that mine is not as thought out as yours. You're very poetic, Victor, not only now but in your work. It's truly incredible." If killing could be considered a legitimate form of art, Roman had no doubts in his mind that Victor would have been hailed as some sort of savant. He could have gone out on his own, become a gang leader in his own right, but instead, Victor chose to stay with him and there was something comforting about that thought. He sighed again, needing time to build up his courage. It had been so much easier when he was standing in front of the mirror, reciting his vows to himself. "I know that I'm not perfect, except appearance-wise because let's face it I am stunning." Victor snorted a small laugh at that and suddenly all the jitters Roman had been feeling about this flew away. "I know that I have issues with certain things, and a tendency to change my mind, and spring things on you out of nowhere like the baby and getting married, but you were always willing to adapt. You took whatever bullshit I threw at you with only mild, occasional complaining. I never had someone as consistent as you, someone who I could count on to stay and be there for me regardless of what happened. Someone so devoted. You are my best friend, you are the love of my life, and I cannot imagine my life without you in it." 

"Ain't that nice." Not-Elvis stated. "May I have the rings?"

"I knew I was forgetting something! I-" Roman exclaimed. How could he have been so stupid as to forget the goddam wedding rings! And here he was thinking he had been _sooo_ on top of things; he'd gotten the suits, booked this place, tried his best to avoid having an Elvis impersonater perform the ceremony (and accepted it as an inevitability when he was told that if he wanted to get married this week, an Elvis would be doing it), and had even made a quick but successful trip to Adam & Eve for that night! How could he remember everything except for- 

Without saying a word Victor reached into his pocket and produced a small jewelry box which he handed over to Not-Elvis. "Victor." Roman said with a sigh of relief. Living proof that his vows were accurate, that he needed to have Victor in his life to take care of him, to make sure he got through everything in one piece. The officiant popped the lid on the jewelry box and Roman felt his mouth go dry, "Is that a fucking Paloma ring!?" 

"I know how you like shiny things," Victor replied with a knowing smile. "And diamonds." So he'd gotten him the ring with the most possible diamonds that he could find. The rings may have been a little bulky, the result of the five bands overlapping to make all the diamonds fit, but just Roman's style. While Not-Elvis was distracted admiring the rings for himself Victor leaned in to whisper, "And I'll tell you all about how I got them when we're alone later." 

Roman shivered. Yeah, he was definitely glad that he had chosen to go to Adam & Eve instead of hunting for a set of rings himself and he was going to repay Victor for thinking ahead of time with the things he'd picked up in his haul. The only question he had now was whether to start with the handcuffs or the collar? 

Not-Elvis handed Victor one of the rings and told him to repeat what he said to him. Admittedly Roman hadn't been paying much attention to what Not-Elvis had to say, he'd been too busy planning out what he was going to do the second they were alone in their hotel suite for their first night together as a married couple. He was yanked back into reality when Victor took hold of his hand and slid the ring onto his finger. "I give you this ring as a token of my love for you and devotion to you. Let it be a reminder that I am always by your side and that I will always be faithful to you. I pledge to you all that I am and all that I will ever be as your husband. With this ring, I gladly marry you and join my life to yours."

The officiant handed Roman the other ring and he did the same, "I will happily wear it and whenever I see it, I will remember that I am never alone and that I have married my best friend." 

"You may now-" Not-Elvis didn't get the chance to finish that sentence before they were on each other; Roman threw his arms around Victor's shoulders and pulled him close, while the other man took the opportunity to snake his arms around Roman's waist and smash their lips together in a deep, passionate kiss. Not the first time that had happened when Not-Elvis had been performing a marriage ceremony and he knew better than to believe it would be the last. He stood there, waiting for the two to break apart, and waited, and waited, and waited, before finally sighing to himself. "Okay then." And wandering off to go get himself something to drink. 


	30. Chapter 30

It had been excruciatingly difficult getting on the plane to come back to Gotham after two weeks of paradise in Sin City but completely necessary. After all, they had left Harley with the responsibility of herding the other rogues out of the apartment and Roman was growing increasingly anxious to see if she had actually been able to get them out or if she had just said that she did while everyone helped themselves to his private wine collection. Then there was the matter of his legitimate social life; Bruce had been hitting up his phone at least once every day and while there had been moments where Roman had been tempted to listen to the messages he left him, he had promised himself to wait until he was back in Gotham. And Harvey...Roman had not received any updates regarding the man's condition. There had to have been updates scattered throughout Bruce's messages but Roman couldn't bring himself to listen to them. Not yet. So after two weeks of relaxing at one of the most luxurious hotels in Las Vegas, occupying their time by lounging at the pool, exploring the city, and having absolutely _wicked_ honeymoon sex, Roman and Victor were on a flight back to Gotham. Victor had slept throughout the flight again only this time Roman was able to drift off himself. They both when the plane landed and wasted no time getting the Rolls from long-term parking and making their way back to the club. 

Roman went in first and hit the button for the lift. "Are you going to let me carry anything?" He asked. 

"Nope." As far as Victor was concerned until this kid popped, Roman was not going to lift anything heavier than a spoon. Not so long as he had anything to say about it. Besides, it wasn't like they had much to carry up to the apartment. Heading out to Vegas on short notice without even taking the time to pack had some unintentional perks, namely that Roman's usual plethora of luggage was left behind and all Victor had to worry about was two cabin-sized suitcases they'd bought at Rimowa to carry the clothes and miscellaneous purchases they'd picked up. He could handle carrying the two to the lift without help. "I got this." 

Roman rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless, "Alright, tough guy. Bring the bags up and we'll get unpacked. After that I want to get started on the baby's room." Sure, they still had a couple of months left to go but things were going to get hectic real fast so it would be better to handle everything now while he had the time. 

"Still got your heart set on red walls?" Victor asked and Roman just shrugged his shoulders in response. Victor got the sneaking suspicion that he was going to be drawn into various discussions comparing and contrasting every known color under the sun in the near future. It wouldn't be so bad if the man actually had an opinion on the matter, but as long as his husband wasn't trying to paint the room black he didn't understand what the big deal was. It wasn't like their baby would care and by the time that they did, they could just have it redone. "Something light, okay?"

"A light red would be nice." Roman agreed. "Or a purple...or maybe green? I don't know. I'll figure something out." 

The lift doors open and Victor immediately knew that something was wrong. This realization didn't occur to his husband at first who was still lost in conversation with himself, discussing possible paint colors, and took a couple of steps forward into the apartment before Victor noticed what he was doing and managed to stop him by grabbing hold of his arm, "Roman!" He shouted and that was enough to snap the other man back into reality. He stopped and sniffed, finally noticing the thing that had his new husband on edge; cigarette smoke. The stale, unmistakable odor of cigarette smoke in an apartment that had been vacant for the last two weeks and smoke-free for the past five months. Somebody was in there. Victor pulled one of his favorite knives out of his pocket and cautiously stepped forward, "Stay behind me." He told Roman and the other man had no objections. 

It didn't take them long to find the source of the smell. A man was sitting in the living room on the couch with his back to the two of them, his darkened silhouette barely visible in the room's dimmed lighting. He was in the middle of smoking a cigarette and enjoying a nice, long drag when Victor felt a surge of adrenaline and decided to make his presence known. "You have to be a special kind of crazy to think that coming here would be a good idea." He barked. "What do you think Boss?"

"I think I want to get a good look at the bastard who has the nerve to break into my home!" Roman exclaimed, glaring daggers into the back of the intruder's head. "Get up!" 

The man sitting on the couch sighed and put his cigarette out on an empty saucer plate on the coffee table (if he had to guess, Victor would have to assume that the guy had taken the liberty of looking for something that he could use as an ash-tray after realizing that he and Roman did not have one out) then put his hands up to show that he was unarmed and slowly rose to his feet, "Now, now. Is that any way to greet an old friend?" 

Both of them knew that voice. It was raspy, coarse and rough, compared to what it had been before but it was unmistakable. Roman grabbed hold of Victor's shoulder to keep himself from collapsing to the floor. He felt a wave of nausea wash over him and how he was able to keep himself from vomiting there and then, the gang leader would never know. "Harvey..." He mumbled, his words coming out so softly that they could be considered a whisper. The man stepped closer towards them allowing both Victor and Roman to get a good look at his face. Victor felt his mouth go dry and as much as he wanted to say something, he couldn't find the words. Roman's tightened his grip on Victor's shoulder and tears started to build in his eyes. "Oh Christ Harvey-"

If you were looking at him from the right, Harvey looked as handsome as he did when he'd been in The Black Mask Club months ago; perfectly gelled chestnut brown hair, soft-looking skin without a single blemish, and the most stunning sky blue eye that sparkled whenever it caught the light. If you were looking at Harvey from the left, however, you were looking at what was essentially a zombie resurrected from the dead. His skin had been burned in some places completely off exposing irritated muscles and tissue in various shades of red, half of his lips were completely gone, along with his hair on that side of his head (burned to the scalp with no hope of regrowth), and his eye on his left side had become bloodshot with even the iris taking on a deep, heinous red. Despite the horrified reactions from the other two men, Harvey grinned and gestured to himself, "We know. This new look doesn't do much for us. Don't you worry though, we got back at Maroni this morning." 

"I don't- what are you talking about Harvey?" Roman asked. This didn't make any sense. Why would they let him leave when he was so clearly still in need? It didn't even look like they had attempted to carry out giving the man a skin graft! Whoever had signed off on letting Harvey leave like this was going to get their medical license revoked if Roman had anything to say about it! He let go of Victor's shoulder and reached out, offering Harvey his arm. "You need to go back to the hospital. You need to let them-"

"No," Harvey replied and took a couple of steps back. "No, you don't get it Roman. You should sit down. Come on." He said and circled back to the couch, happily plopping down and patting the seat next to him. Roman and Victor exchanged a look but went and joined him, Victor sitting on one end and Roman sitting in the middle. Still grinning, Harvey leaned over and gave Victor a nod of acknowledgment. "Hello again, Victor." 

"Dent," Victor replied and wondered if either of them would notice if he tried to sneak away to get himself a drink. With his luck they both would so Victor resolved to just sit in silence, occasionally reminding his husband of his presence by gently leaning against him. 

Harvey's gaze landed on Roman's stomach and he moved to place his hand over the bump but hesitated just as it was about to touch and pulled back. Roman shifted uncomfortably. He wouldn't have minded it. Fuck, if they had been given the opportunity to have that dinner they'd been planning with Bruce, both of his old friends would have been given the chance to feel his stomach by now. "You've gotten a lot bigger since the last time we saw you." The DA settled on saying. 

Roman stared at his friend for what felt like hours before deciding to be honest in his approach. He couldn't bring himself to fire off some bullshit, not like this. "Harvey, you're starting to freak me out." He admitted. "Please tell me what's going on. Why aren't you in the hospital?"

"We're not going back," Harvey replied. "There is far too much to be done and we have no time to waste. It took longer than anticipated for us to get through with Maroni-" Seeing a mix of fear and confusion flash in Roman's eyes, Harvey circled back. "Oh. I'm sorry. We should have elaborated earlier. We killed him."

"W-what?" Roman asked. Was this some kind of joke? Yes! That had to be it! Bruce had to have told Harvey all about his fight with Roman when they'd gone to see him and, after getting the necessary medical treatment, they'd hatched this entire thing as some zany scheme to try and teach him a lesson! The left side of Harvey's face was so gross and so realistic, it had to be special effects! There was no way any of this could be real! This had to have been a joke!...But then, where was Bruce? And why did Harvey speak with such conviction? The gang leader could feel more tears building in his eyes but made no effort to wipe them away. "Harvey, what in God's name are you-"

"That's the other thing," Harvey said cutting him off. "Don't call us Harvey anymore. Doesn't go with our brand, if you catch what I'm saying." 

"Who-"

Sitting in silence wasn't getting them anywhere so Victor piped up, "Maybe we should call Bruce-"

"No." The man formerly known as Harvey interrupted. "There'll be none of that. We have to get going anyway. Just wanted to stop in and offer you a very belated apology. See Roman, you were right." 

"About what?" 

"All those years ago I should have helped you with your parents. I should have helped you kill them." Not-Harvey explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the entire world. "There is no such thing as justice in this world. You work hard, you try to be a good person despite all of the fucked up things the world dumps on you, but it never works. Justice can only exist for those ruthless enough to seek it for themselves." He reached out, gently took hold of one of Roman's hands and gave it a squeeze. "You were right this entire time and I'm sorry that we never listened to you." 

"We?" Roman asked. He kept saying ' _we'_. Who the fuck was he talking about whenever he said ' _we'_? "Harvey, please-"

"No. Not Harvey." The man insisted and let go of his old friend's hand. "Call me Two-Face. And don't worry too much, Roman. You'll be seeing plenty more of me in the future." On that note, the former DA rose to his feet, made his way over to the lift, and left Roman and Victor sitting on the couch watching him leave at a complete and utter loss for words. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hot-Take: Harvey Dent, prior to the acid attack, was such a pretty boy. He was the prettiest boy in Gotham and you know what? He still is and, depending on whether or not I write a chapter drunk, you may be getting a chapter were I just wax poetic about how beautiful he is! 
> 
> Also, this chapter originally wasn't even going to have Roman and Victor in it; it was going to be Bane and Scarecrow getting roughed up by Two-Face's crew while he broke into the Black Mask Club but I figured it was probably a bad idea to go so off track in regards to characters. I can also write about what Bane and Jon were getting up to later.


	31. Chapter 31

Still half asleep Victor rolled over in bed and reached out to try and wrap his arm around his snoozing husband's form. When his hand felt the mattress instead the man's eyes flew open and he became aware of the empty spot in the bed next to him. Victor groaned as his eyes tried to adjust to the darkness of the room. "Roman?" He called out, thinking that his husband may have just gotten up to go to the bathroom or get himself something to eat. As they grew closer and closer to go-time, Roman's cravings had been beginning to pick up and it was growing more and more common for him to wake up in the middle of the night with the desire for a quick snack. Even so, Victor still grew uneasy every time he woke up and didn't see his husband nearby. Maybe he was just being paranoid but after the shit that had gone down with Roman's parents, he felt justified. Roman didn't respond to him so Victor forced himself up into a sitting position and tried calling out to him again. "Roman?" Nothing. That was enough for Victor. He got up and walked towards the bathroom, poking his head in to see an empty, black room. With that ruled out as an option, Victor headed out to the kitchen and living room to search for him there. "Baby?" 

Nothing but an empty, quiet apartment as the man tried to shake off the feeling of déjà vu. Okay, that wasn't a good sign but it wasn't time to panic just yet. There was still the possibility that Roman had remembered something that demanded his immediate attention down in the club and he hauled himself out of bed to tend to that. Just because Roman wasn't in the apartment didn't mean he had been kidnapped for the second time during his pregnancy. All he had to do was check and, if he still couldn't find his husband, Victor now had a miniature army that he could call upon to track him down and annihilate whoever would dare to try and take his family from him. The assassin made his way to the lift, phone in his pajama pants pocket with his contact list already pulled up, but as he was crossing the living room something caught his attention. Next to the lift, tucked into a corner of the room, was a rickety old door leading up to the roof that Roman had been previously unable to decorate to his liking. Most of the time it was hidden away by whatever art piece had caught Roman's attention that month but tonight it was currently ajar. Well then, Victor thought and made his way up the old steel stairs, he could always check the club later.

He found Roman sitting on an old wooden lounge chair staring out at the city skyline. It wasn't much for stargazing, what with all the light pollution, but the flickering lights from the surrounding buildings tried their best to make up for it. Victor strode towards him, wrapped his arms around Roman's shoulders from behind, and leaned over the back of the chair to press a kiss to his husband's cheek. "You haven't come up here in a while." He stated. "I had no idea where you went. I was getting worried. Thought you'd gotten kidnapped on your way to White Castle or something." Roman didn't say anything so Victor tried again and pressed another kiss to his cheek. "Boss?"

"I just wanted to come up here for a second and get some air." The gang leader explained though Victor could tell from the tone of his voice that wasn't entirely the case. "And it was MacDonald's." Not that it was any better. 

"I see." Victor replied. "Mind if I join you then?" 

"No." Roman inched slightly forward so that his husband could slide in behind him. Once Victor, was comfortable Roman leaned back, resting his head against his chest. The assassin sighed and ran his fingers through Roman's hair. It was nice up here; the roof was as quiet a place as anyone could get in Gotham not to mention private. What better way to admire the city at night without having to gut somebody,

"You get used to the sound of police sirens in this city. It's beautiful in a strangely urban way." 

"I don't see much beauty in it." Roman retorted with a bit of a snarl. "Why did I ever think we could escape this fucking nightmare of a city?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about how we left for a few weeks, not even a month, and Harvey, fucking Harvey Dent, becomes a gangster!"

Ah, there it was. "I would have thought you'd have been happy," said Victor. "He knows that you were right now, all those years ago, and he's now able to be in your life like never before." Had Roman been able to discuss work with his old friends before? No, because they were the CEO of Wayne Enterprises and the District Attorney of Gotham and would send his ass up the river before he could even get into the nitty-gritty of everything. Now he could work alongside one of his oldest companions, talk about literally anything with him without having to censor himself! Fuck, maybe Harvey had some new ideas on how to kill people. If he showed up at their next alliance meeting, Victor was going to have to pick his brain and see what he had to say. 

"Two-Face is able to be in my life like never before," Roman corrected him but just because they were sharing a face, sharing a body, didn't mean that Two-Face and Harvey were the same person. When they were kids Two-Face wasn't the one who chased down anyone who gave Roman or Bruce a hard time, in high school Two-Face wasn't the guy who took it upon himself to cheer Roman up whenever he got his heartbroken by whatever playboy he was seeing at the time, and Two-Face certainly wasn't the guy who helped Roman get through the most difficult and awkward heat of his life when his parents had essentially coated him in meat sauce and threw him to the wolves! Roman shook his head, "He's not Harvey. Not like I knew him." 

"Give him some time," Victor assured him and kissed the top of Roman's head. "Whatever's going on with him, you just need to give him some time."

"This isn't some phase he's going through Victor, the man had half his face melted off!"

"And it's going to take him some time to work through all of that." It was a given that Harvey was going to have physical scars from his attack, but he was bound to have a plethora of emotional and mental scars from undergoing something so traumatic and life-shattering. The guy had been assaulted at work, the system that he had fought so vehemently for had failed him, turned his place of work into a place where he no longer could feel safe, and he had been humiliated on a major scale, not to mention the fact that his face had been severely disfigured! That was a lot to process at once. All Victor could say was that if it had been him, he would have blown up half the city by now instead of axing a couple of gangsters. "And if he doesn't, grab him by the ear and drag him to wherever your buddy Bruce Wayne is held up so you can all work through your issues together."

Roman snickered at the mental image of himself dragging Two-Face up the front steps of Wayne manor by his remaining ear. "I can't wait to see how you do at disciplining this kid." 

"What are you talking about? I'm going to be a cool dad." Victor replied with a grin. "One of those dads who shares a beer with the kid after their first day of work-"

"You're going to make our kid actually work?" Like a part-time job? _Flipping burgers_ or _stocking shelves_ at some _chain store_ on the northside of Gotham? Over his dead body was his only child going to be working at any place that paid _minimum wage_ to start! If their kid wanted to work, Roman had connections, he could get them something at one of the higher-end stores or even working at the club! What were the labor laws in Gotham regarding minors working at a nightclub anyway? Were they applicable when said club belonged to the minor's parents? Or, there was a simpler option. "We have money. They don't need to work." 

"Jobs teach kids responsibility." Victor pointed out. 

"Yeah, and so does owning some goldish or a hamster or something. I'm not making the kid work if they don't want to work." Their child was only going to have so much time to enjoy being a teenager, to make friends, to enjoy high school to the fullest, and to work on getting the best possible grades so they could go to their dream university. If a job got in the way of that, Roman wasn't going to make them work knowing full well he could provide them with any financial support they needed. If his child wanted to work though, who was he to stand in the way of that? 

Victor just chuckled, "You really are trying to make me the strict dad, aren't you?" 

"Someone has to be. I intend on being the modern dad who throws the best parties and who all our kid's friends have a crush on. A DILF, if you will." God knows he could pull that off easily enough. The Black Mask Club would be the perfect place for a wild teenage rager when all the other popular kids' parents were out of town and if there was one thing Roman was known for (besides his passion for masks and wild party life when he was a teenager), it was his ability to throw a kick-ass party! He could see it now; his kid would throw the best parties in school (with some help from him of course), invite all of his friends on lavish skiing trips during winter break and fun, sunny vacations to California or even the Caribbean in summer! 

"What's a DILF?"

"Dad-I'd-Like-To-Fuck." 

"Our child's future friends better not call you a DILF!" The assassin had no problem slicing a kid to ribbons if they ever dared to look at _his_ husband and utter such an unflattering phrase. Regardless of how inevitably pissed his child would be with him after. 

"Maybe they'll call you a DILF," Roman responded. "You already got the ugly dad-shirts." 

"I thought you liked my ugly dad-shirts."

"You know that I don't." It was a mere tolerance at this point, or rather the gang leader had spent so much time seeing Victor in one of his ugly striped polos that it felt strange to see him wearing anything else. 

Victor smirked, "Yeah, I did know that." Roman had made his disgust of Victor's sense of style abundantly clear within their first year of working with each other multiple times. Somewhere stuffed away in the back of their closet, in a garbage bag, were a bunch of silk shirts and leather pants that Roman had taken the liberty of purchasing for him that Zsasz had never worn, some still with the price tags on them. "What are you going to do if our kid has my sense of style."

"That's never going to happen." Roman could handle his child inheriting a lot of things from Victor; dark brown hairs, naturally black hair, a grin like the cheshire cat, a poetic soul, an artistic heart, a pension for killing, even his ability to sleep through anything from an alarm to a natural disaster, but this was where he drew the line. The one and only thing that he would not accept and would damn near kill himself to correct! Luckily, with all of their money, Roman had the resources to ensure that their child was decked out in the latest fashions. "Not in this damn lifetime."


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little...bare-bones compared to some of the other ones but I have a good excuse! The next couple of chapters are going to be a lot more exciting! I saw this idea on Tumblr and was inspired so there's that to look forward to!
> 
> Also, did you see that Victor Zsasz was introduced on the latest episode of Harley Quinn? I damn near lost my mind! Between him and Bane, this show has been getting me through quarantine (well, that and writing this fic which now has a clear end-goal! Yay!)

"Hey Boss," Victor said lightly rapping his knuckles against the door to their former guestroom. After getting the furniture out and into storage the other day, Roman had devoted a considerable portion of his time to just sitting inside the empty room with his laptop and trying to piece together what he wanted for the space. Victor, having been told repeatedly that he had no eye for style, opted to just let his husband do his thing and offer his support in picking up whatever Roman needed him to and checking in on him with occasional drinks and snacks or, like he was doing now, alerting him to the presence of company. "We have visitors."

The gang leader looked up from the Benjamin Moore webpage where he'd been tirelessly scouring for possible paint colors and asked, "Fun visitors or business visitors?"

"Little of both."

"So Harley?" Roman asked. "Alright, I'm coming." The gang leader closed his laptop and started walking towards the door, taking the time to grab a couple of paint samples off the floor beside him. He held them up for Victor to see, "What do you think? I've narrowed it down to these four but I cannot for the life of me narrow it down any further. Which do you prefer?" 

This was a trap, Victor knew it was. "Whatever one you want Boss."

"You're no help." Roman said with an exasperated sigh and stomped along to the front door. He yanked it open and before either person standing on the other side could say anything, the gang leader shoved the color samples in their faces. "Harley, Bane, which one of these do you prefer? The rose quartz, the lemon meringue, the spring meadow green, or the exotic fuchsia?"

"Hello to you too." Harley greeted him with an eye-roll. 

Bane quickly looked between the colors, "I like the lemon." He finally declared. 

"Thank you, Bane." Roman said and lightly elbowed his husband in the side, "See? It's not that hard." 

Harley chuckled and stepped past the two of them into the apartment, Bane awkwardly maneuvering behind her, and made their way over to the couch, each holding a medium-sized cardboard box tucked under their arms which were promptly deposited on the coffee table. "Honeymoon period jumped over you guys didn't it?" 

"What are you talking about?" Victor asked and threw his arm around his husband's shoulders. "Our honeymoon never ended."

"Just gonna rub it in that you're getting laid on the reg huh?" The clown asked with a laugh then playfully shoved the big guy sitting next to her. "Sorry Bane."

"Hey, Bane could laid too if he wants," Victor said coming to the other alpha's defense. "Couldn't you big guy?"

Bane shifted awkwardly and suddenly became very interested in the floor. "I would rather not talk about this right now..." 

"Sorry Buddy," Harley said and gave her masked companion a quick, half-hug to make it up to him. With their love lives out of the question of discussion, Harley decided to move on to the next piece of major gossip to circulate Gotham. "So, you seen the new guy yet?"

"Yeah...yeah I saw him," Roman said softly and took a seat across from the two currently situated on his couch. "Can we not talk about that either?"

Sensing a wave of anguish already beginning to surround them Bane decided to be the one to try and lighten the mood. He scooped his gift up off the coffee table and held it up over his head like a triumphant trophy. "Look what got delivered!" And all it took was a couple of extra weeks, constantly checking the tracking number to see where it was, and several threatening phone calls to the delivery company's helpline that inspired him scheduling an attack on the company's Gotham branch sometime in the near future. 

"Oh, I'd almost forgotten about that." It was hard to believe that the baby-shower had been weeks ago and Bane & Harley's lack of gifts had completely slipped his mind. If they hadn't brought them over, Roman may have forgotten about the matter completely. "Thanks guys." 

Harley clapped her hands together excitedly. "Well, open it up! See what you got!"

"Here," Bane offered and handed his present over to the assassin sitting across from him. "You take this one, Victor, and Roman can open Harley's."

Roman went first and tore open the top of the cardboard shipping box. Inside was another box, this one colorful and spotted with various cartoon animals, and on one side a picture of a baby enjoying the fully assembled toy inside. "This is cute." The gang leader remarked with a smile. He hadn't even thought about getting the baby an activity gym until they were a couple of months old but there was no harm in getting one now. Hell, most of the gifts from the baby shower were geared towards the future rather than present use (case and point, Cobblepot's cigars and liquor). At least this was something that the baby could actually use! "For when they're a couple of months old and will want to play?" 

"Yep! Just lay the little bugger down and let 'em work things out!" 

"With supervision, I assume you mean." Roman corrected her. Like he was going to go through all of the doctor's appointments, having to give up drinking, and an ever-expanding waistline just to set this baby down and forget about them until they could talk! "I am not letting this kid out of my sight until the first day of school." No, even that felt too soon to let go. "High school."

Victor took this as his chance to open Bane's gift and with a little help from his favorite knife sliced open the top of the box. Inside was a small, fluffy teddy bear with light brown fur wearing a little grey knitted sweater. "I think this is my favorite." No, he knew this was his favorite. Bane's gift was so simple and cute, yet it was something that no child deserved to go without. Every kid needed to have some stuffed animal in their life that they could cling to whenever they needed comfort, no matter who their parents were or who they grew up to be. Though there was one thing about the other man's gift that had Victor scratching his head, "You had to get a classic teddy bear shipped to you?" 

"They only sell rabbits and elephants at the chain stores now. No bears," Bane explained with a frown. It had been a strange phenomenon to witness. At what point did stuffed bears so out of fashion that the majority of children's stories in Gotham did not stock them? He had gone so far as to ask several sales associates if they were simply out of stock, but they had insisted that they had never sold any bears there. People in this city were insane was his take on the matter and if that had not been cemented by the lack of teddy bears on the shelves, then it had been so by the abundance of a certain plush he had come across at every single store he visited. "And bats but that seemed highly inappropriate." 

Harley cocked an eyebrow, "What's wrong with bunnies?" She asked. 

"The first stuffed animal should always be the teddy bear," Bane insisted. Everyone's first plush was always a teddy bear, it was an unspoken tradition that he was not about to let die out because some parents thought that little vermin with big ears were cuter! "Bunnies can come later." 

"I like it too," Roman said and took the bear from Victor in order to give it a little squeeze. "It's soft and adorable and the baby is going to love it." As soon as they were old enough to actually play and sleep with it. All of the books that he had been skimming through recommended not placing them in the crib with the babies until they were at least twelve months old. He set the little bear down on the coffee table and using the armrest of the couch, pushed himself up to his feet. "Hang on, I'm going to go get something drink. Do you guys want anything?"

"Yeah, I'll come with you." Harley replied and followed Roman into the kitchen leaving Bane and Victor to themselves.

Bane shifted and folded his hands in his lap to give himself something to occupy attention with, "Roman is handling the pregnancy well. He is positively glowing." He settled on saying. 

"Thank you. He'll appreciate you saying that." 

"Victor, while I have you here, may I ask you a question?"

Oh? Bane, the big, bad venom-pumping supervillain, was asking Zsasz for advice? Wasn't Victor intrigued? "Shoot."

"I am...admittedly inexperienced when it comes to relationships." It wasn't like there had been much time for dating in the pit and after he'd escaped, Bane had pretty much devoted all of his time and energy into bringing the city of Gotham to its knees and destroying the bat. He had been unable to find the time to show up to a speed-dating event or set up a profile on E-Harmony, and while there was always tinder the one time Bane had matched with someone their one and only date had ended in disaster! The man had heard horror stories over the years from his fellow rogues and his own goons about how there was always the risk of meeting some weirdo online but he had never believed it until he was sitting in the middle of Applebee's across from a very bold young woman who had no qualms asking about the size of a particular organ in front of their waitress. With such a terrible record under his belt, Bane was not the best at recognizing when someone was flirting with him. "How did you know that Roman was interested?"

"Is somebody interested in you?" Victor asked and the moment the words were out of his mouth he realized that was a stupid question to ask. He had been at their last rogues' meeting, he had listened to the grapevine and seen their allies out in the streets of Gotham at night. One of their friends had a crush and was not the least bit secretive about it. "Oh. Jonathan."

"You can tell?"

"Buddy, every time you're in the same room he stares at you and is constantly wiping drool from his mouth. He's into you." 

"Oh. I never noticed." Or if he had, Bane had been painfully oblivious to the fact that Scarecrow's affections were directed towards him. But that was the past! Now that he was no longer in the dark, certainly he could do something about it! ...But what? "So what did you do when you realized Roman was into you?"

"Well, Roman is different from Jonathan, so I don't know if it would work for you." "I found out Roman was interested when he invited me over for dinner and sat in my lap. I don't think Jonathan would be into that." Jonathan struck him as the shy-type who would inwardly squeal and blush whenever somebody even held his hand, let alone get so close so fast. Take him out to dinner, to see a movie a couple of times, and then maybe, just maybe, Bane could get himself a little lap action. "And you'd crush him." 

"But dinner is a good place to start?" Bane asked. "I offered him dinner."

"Dinner is a great place to start. Just do us all a favor though, if things _do_ get heavy quick, please be careful with Jonathan. We need him." If the big guy didn't approach the situation with reasonable caution, Victor had no doubts in his mind that Bane could end up completely splitting the smaller man in two. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Picture Bane, in his normal costume, sitting in the middle of a crowded restaurant with a little tie on. You're welcome :P
> 
> Also; rose quartz, lemon meringue, spring meadow green, or exotic fuchsia?


	33. Chapter 33

It took a lot to wake Victor Zsasz from a sound sleep. The usual alarms didn't work and usually, whenever Roman needed him to get up he'd resort to shaking his partner awake. There was, however, a second option that was rarely utilized unless Roman was in an unusually chipper mood and Santigo was awake and already hard at work in the kitchen. Mornings like this one when the scent of warm, buttery breakfast food caught his nose and was enough to stir him from sleep. Victor opened his eyes and turned his head towards the door where his husband was waiting for him with a tray in hand. "Morning!" He exclaimed. "I got breakfast!"

"Good morning," said Victor. "That smells good. You made chocolate chip pancakes?"

"No, Santigo made chocolate chip pancakes but I brought them in to you," Roman replied and set the tray down on the bedside table to avoid accidentally knocking it over. It was a pretty impressive spread; a huge stack of the fluffiest looking chocolate chip pancakes, coated in maple syrup and butter, joined by a plate of fresh, crispy bacon and strawberries, along with a cup of coffee for Victor and a glass of orange juice for Roman. "It's breakfast in bed for my wonderful husband!"

"Wonderful?" The alpha repeated. "Alright, I'll bite. What do you need Boss?" 

Victor really knew him, didn't he? Well, no point in beating around the bush now. "I need you to go pick something up for me," Roman explained. "I got the color picked out for the nursery and I've scheduled a painter to come do it this afternoon. I just need you to pick up the paint." 

"Lemon meringue like Bane suggested?" 

"Yep! But let's be real though, I'm probably going to end up redoing it like once every year or so." Not only when their child grew and required new furniture, new toys, etc, but whenever Roman simply couldn't stand it anymore and needed a change. It happened often enough, he would be invited to some fancy gala or be doing a bit of online shopping and come across something that he just had to have but wouldn't fit with his decorum at the time and spend the next couple of weeks resetting his apartment to accommodate. "But I thought we could have breakfast together first." 

"I like the sound of that," Victor had never been one to turn down food, let alone pancakes, with his favorite person. He sat up and though he was tempted to just dive right in and begin eating, he couldn't bring himself to. Not yet. He placed his hand against the swell of Roman's stomach and was unable to hold back the smile that formed when he felt movement beneath his palm. "How are they?"

"Right where you left them," Roman replied and helped himself to a quick, small sip of Victor's coffee (decaf, unfortunately, as they agreed to go through the nine months caffeine-free together. Both were still adjusting more than halfway through the pregnancy). "They're fine. They decided to be nice and let me get a full night's sleep last night." 

"That's good," Victor said and leaned in to press a kiss to the bump. "Be nice to him, little one. Your dad gets grumpy when he doesn't have eight hours." 

"I do not! Don't listen to him-!" The gang leader was more than ready to launch into a rant about how his husband was exaggerating things when he remembered that there was no way that their child could actually understand what was being said and Victor was just teasing him as evident by the giant grin spreading across the assassin's face. Roman rolled his eyes and gave him a half-hearted shove, "You're ridiculous."

"You love me." Victor reminded him. 

* * *

"Hey. I'm here to pick up an order for Roman Sionis." 

"Just a second." The hardware store clerk answered and disappeared into the back to go look for it, leaving Victor leaning against the counter waiting for her return. The assassin sighed and started to drum his fingers along the countertop to try and occupy his time. There was nothing around the store that caught his eye, just endless rows of tools and paint cans, and only one other person who was occupying their time by flipping through a DIY magazine. The other guy looked up from whatever article on bathroom renovation had captured his attention, made eye contact with Victor, and nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Hey, how's it going?" He asked, "Those are some interesting scars you got there. You in the army or something?"

"Nah, I just scar easily," Victor replied and before the guy could ask him any more questions the clerk returned from the back carrying a can of paint. "Thank you." He mumbled, snatched the paint can, and headed out the door. He heard the bell above the door chime behind him as he stepped back into the street and made his way over to the car, and then heard it chime again. 

"Victor Zsasz." A voice called out, the guy from inside the store; was he following him? Victor stopped and turned around only to find the guy now standing in the middle of the sidewalk holding something shiny and golden out for Victor to see. "Gotham PD. I'm going to need you to come with me."

* * *

After being whisked away to the police station in the back of a cruiser, Zsasz was escorted to a small windowless room containing nothing more than a desk, a couple of chairs, and a mirror. It resembled something out of the cheesiest cops shows, from the steel furniture to the dim lighting. Even without prior knowledge of police procedures via late night tv, Victor knew the drill by now. Sure enough, as soon as he was brought into the room the pissant cop that had detained him scurried off, probably to the other side of that mirror which was so obviously two-way glass to meet up with his superiors as they waited for him to crack. Well, Victor would not give them the satisfaction. He sat there for hours, hands calmly folded in front of him on the table, passing the time by imaging a hundred different ways that he could kill the bastards. His phone rested comfortably in his pocket, alerting Victor to it's presence with the occasional vibration of an incoming text. At first, they were spaced apart but as the hours ticked by his phone entered a state of constant vibration. Victor ignored it. If these pigs were going to try and bring him in then he may as well try and get a laugh out of the whole thing. After what had to have been three hours at the least, another cop entered the room and closed the door behind him. Victor knew who he was, anytime the Gotham PD made some half-decent progress he was right there on camera to brag about it; Captain Patrick Erickson. Victor didn't know if he should feel flattered that the man found him worth his time or pissed off that it wasn't a real cop questioning him. Either way, his demeanor did not change at the additional presence. "Victor Zsasz," The Captain drew his name out and haphazardly tossed a manila folder onto the table separating them before taking his seat. "You're an interesting guy, you know that? Perfectly normal, all-around golden boy drops out of high school and ends up at the beck and call of one Roman Sionis-"

"I know what happened, officer, I was there." Victor interrupted him. The fact that these people thought that bringing up his past would stimulate some sort of emotional response from him after all these years was frankly insulting. The only thing they would get was muffled embarrassment over ever being so generic, so regular, such a sheep. "Are you going to tell me what I'm doing here or are you just going to keep recapping my life story?"

"Don't get smart with me! You know damn well why you're here!" Erickson snapped and Victor couldn't help but cock an eyebrow. Had he touched a sore subject with the Captain? Oh, how interesting. Victor kept his mouth shut and the Captain took this as an opportunity to continue. "Salvatore Maroni's body was pulled out of the harbor this morning."

...Was this some sort of joke? Out of all the possible things that they could have brought him in for, all of the murders and missing persons to cross this man's desk that Victor had a hand in over the past fifteen years, and they were bringing him in for Salvatore fucking Maroni? Something that he genuinely had nothing to do with?! Sionis' righthand man would have laughed himself into a stupor if currently face-to-face with the man offering him such absurdity. He would have to save his laughter for later when sharing the story with Roman and their alliance because something this ridiculous needed to be shared. "I fail to see what that has to do with me." 

"He was murdered. Throat slit from ear to ear, his body weighed down with cinderblocks," Erickson explained and suddenly Victor didn't want to laugh anymore. Cinderblocks? The GPD really thought that he would resort to mafia-style methods of body removal? How childish. "And given your...reputation with knives this seemed like it would be right up your alley."

"I have no idea what you are talking about." And for once in his adult life, Victor Anthony Zsasz was not lying to a member of law enforcement. Well, not entirely so. He knew that Morani was dead and he knew the person (or should he say persons?) who had killed him but the method of execution and where Two-Face had hidden the body was fresh knowledge to him so unless Erickson asked about that directly, Victor was going to count this as him telling the truth. "Even if I were inclined to such heinous acts, why would I want to kill Maroni? He never did anything to me."

"No, but you know what he did to Harvey Dent." Erickson supplied. "And Roman Sionis." 

Victor straightened himself up and took his hands off the table to prevent himself from reaching out and sucker-punching the Captain in the nose for even daring to utter his husband's name in front of him. Such a lazy, thieving excuse for an officer, he wasn't worthy of saying Roman's name! But an angry response was not going to get Zsasz out of there so, through clenched teeth, he muttered, "It's a real shame what happened to Dent. I met him once, he was very pleasant man." Again; not a lie. 

"And Roman?" Erickson asked because of course he wouldn't. Every cop on the force knew that Sionis was heavily guarded by the man who, on his tax forms, claimed to be a bouncer at The Black Mask Club but in actuality was more of a bodyguard, Roman's right hand and loyal guard dog. "We all know that you and Sinois are close. You've been working for him for what? Going on fifteen years?"

"Something like that," Victor replied. "But what does my employment have to do with anything? I'm just a bouncer."

"Allow me to jog your memory." The Captain offered and, not waiting for an answer from the man in his custody, flipped open the manila folder and flipped it around so Victor could take a better look. Inside were a stack of documents, if Victor had to guess relating to Maroni, but it was the document at the top that was meant for him. It was a scanned black and white photocopy of the cover of Good Morning Gotham from May of 2001 which proudly boasted a candid of a recently made Maroni eating dinner across from a then still-seventeen Roman Sionis. 2001 had been a busy year for the Gotham Underworld; Sergio Maroni was killed in a violent shoot-out with the Falcone outfit, leaving his eldest son Salvatore to take his father's throne while all the other criminals scrambled to select a side in the upcoming civil war. Victor played the role of Switzerland; sitting on the sidelines and watching the carnage roll out while only occasionally stepping out from his shoebox apartment to slice apart anyone who dared to look at him the wrong way. Roman, on the other hand, in what he would later admit to Victor over a couple of bottles of whiskey, was a desperate attempt to humiliate his parents, found himself neck-deep in the chaos by engaging in short affairs with Falcone's nephew, a cousin of the Bertinellis who made his living running guns, and Salvatore himself. At the time of his confession, Roman and Victor's relationship was strictly professional so Victor excused himself home to take out his anger on a couple of passersby on the streets, but now took comfort in the fact that all three of his husband's former flings were now deceased (two of which by Victor's hand). Huh. Perhaps he should see about treating old Two-Face to a drink once he was cut loose as a thank you for taking care of the third for him? "Roman and Salvatore had a thing together, back in the day." Erickson stated as if it wasn't clear and obvious by the picture. "Why I wouldn't be surprised if that kid Sionis is carrying right now is Maroni's-"

_**NOPE!** _

_**That was were Victor drew the line!** _

"You really don't want to finish that thought." He stated quickly, his eyes narrowing into a fierce and menacing glare. Erickson took a step back, clearly caught off-guard by the other man's change in demeanor. Being a cop, and idiot, the Captain was unable to stop himself from asking the simplest and yet most complicated of all questions, 

"Why?"

"Because the baby Roman is carrying is mine," Victor informed him. "So if your theory about what happened to Maroni is that I killed him for having an affair with Roman and getting him pregnant, you're sorely mistaken." 

Erickson glanced over at the mirror as if the cops standing around on the other side would be able to offer him any sort of assistance with this. All of the papers, the gossip magazines, and the tabloids that had commented on Roman's condition had not mentioned any other parent by name which lead to a lot of speculation amongst those in the city who were too bored to entertain themselves through any means other than gossip. In all of these speculations, in all of these rumors, not one person had thrown out the name of Roman's bouncer as a possible candidate. It was outrageously stupid, in hindsight, but then again people liked to theorize and hope for the most specular answer; Roman's child was the result of an affair with his old (and now married) fling Maroni, the child was the result of a one-night stand and even Sionis didn't know who was responsible, the baby was Batman's lovechild, all these rumors and more had gotten more publicity than the far more logical and rational solution of one Victor Zsasz. Even so, Erickson had his doubts. It was just like Zsasz to cover for his boss. The Captain crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared at the other man still seated at the table, "Do you expect me to just take your word for it?"

"Nope," Victor replied. "Luckily I have proof. How long have I been here?"

"Four hours." Captain Erickson answered and retook his seat across from the man at the table. "Getting antsy, are we?"

"No. Just checking the time," Victor explained and reached into his pocket. He pulled out his phone and slid it across the table to the Captain. "Here."

"What?" Erickson asked and picked the phone up. Victor had left it unlocked, just for the Captain, so he had no trouble sliding in and seeing the amount of missed calls and messages currently pilling up in Victor's inbox. "You have thirty-seven new messages and nine missed calls in the last hour alone," The Captain stated and was unable to hide how impressed he was with the sheer magnitude of the number. "Somebody misses you."

Victor grinned and leaned back in his chair, "You have no idea." 


	34. Chapter 34

It may have been still early in the evening but Jonathan was still in bed. So it may not have been _his_ bed but considering he spent the majority of his days out of Arkham and not in the mild of some plot hold up in his office with only his phone alarms reminding him to take breaks to eat and shower, he was going to count it as a win. A really, really big win seeing as he wasn't alone in that bed. Speaking of his companion, the big guy had been out cold for the last twenty minutes. Jon had tried to do the same and enjoy a little a nap between their last round and what sure to be an oncoming round seven but for once he didn't feel tired. Figures, the one time he had the chance to catch up on his sleep and he couldn't. Staring up at the ceiling, held in place by one firm, strong arm wrapped around his waist, gave him time to think about his latest plot and try to hammer out some of the details inside his head at least. October was coming up fast, he was going to need to figure out what he was planning to do this year. Not another bomb threat, that was so tired. Jonathan was torn away from his thoughts by the sound of his ringtone, Marilyn Manson's cover of This Is Halloween, going off. Unable to wriggle his way free, the doctor opted instead to roll over onto his side to try and fish his pants up off the bedroom floor and retrieve his phone from the pocket. Somehow his companion slept through the entire thing. Jon chuckled and slid his finger to answer the call, "Hell-"

"Jonathan!" The panicked voice of Roman Sionis screamed over the line and Jonathan nearly dropped his phone. Good thing he didn't, Eddie accidentally broke his phone case a couple weeks back and Jon's replacement still hadn't arrived yet. If it took any longer, the doctor was going to take up Bane's offer to blow up the distributor's office. "I require your services!"

"Oh?" Jonathan asked. "Is everything alright?"

"Victor has been detained by the Gotham PD! Harley and Ivy are robbing Gotham First National, and I need you to drive me to go get him!" Under normal circumstances, the gang leader was hesitant to drive himself let alone heavily pregnant and on the verge of storming the police department with a loaded machine gun to spring his husband free from their clutches! All of that would translate into a fatal case of road rage that the city of Gotham would never recover from. Still, the doctor wasn't sure if having the Scarecrow drop him off was the best option, 

"You want me, a known criminal, to drive you to the police station?"

"You can wait in the car! I won't be long!" 

Yeah, Jon believed that. Ten seconds into Roman's quest to break Victor out of jail and the Gotham Police would be begging for mercy and leave anyone with connections to both men alone until the year 2025. If he wasn't risking his own arrest by stepping foot in that building, Jon would love to follow Roman inside and film the entire thing. But he would have to settle to listening to the story second-hand. Jon sighed and rubbed his temples, "Give me ten minutes." He told the other rogue. It was going to take him at least ten minutes to free himself from Bane's iron grip. 

* * *

With every text and message Roman left on Victor's answering machine, the further into the hole Captain Erickson sank and Victor was having a hell of a time trying to keep himself from grinning like a shark as the man's hope for a peaceful resolution to all of this died a little more with each and every word that slipped from Victor's incredible husband's mouth. Erickson played them all and had the pleasure of listening as one of Gotham's most influential citizens slipped from concerned partner checking in to a confused, furious, raving lunatic who snapped back and forth from demanding to know where his righthand was to a sobbing mess questioning if he had done something to upset him and right back to the fuming beast snarling into the other end of the phone. "Christ..." Erickson mumbled and heaved a sigh of relief when Victor's phone alerted them both to their reaching the end of his inbox. "That's...is he always like that?"

"He's hormonal," Victor explained and he was sure that if his husband was there, Roman would have elbowed him hard in the gut for that one. "And ever since he found out about what happened to Harvey and his parents, he's been so clingy on top of everything else. Anxious, you know what I mean?"

"Oh, right, yeah. That...that would be rough..." Your only surviving family members being assaulted with one left in a near vegetative state and the other missing and presumed dead, while one of your oldest friends was assaulted and horribly scarred on the job leading to him snapping and going completely off the deep end. It was hard enough getting through a pregnancy without all of the death and murder, constantly getting bombarded by such close and personal blows couldn't have made it any easier.

If Roman hadn't had a hand in half of the murders it could have really taken a toll on his health and the health of the baby. "Yep." Was all Victor said in response. "Can't imagine how he'll react when he realizes that I have been detained." Yes, he could and it was going to be _glorious!_

"We're trying to solve a murder, here, Mr. Zsasz. A little cooperation would go a long way." 

"Have I not been cooperating?" Victor asked. "May I see my phone for a second?"

"No."

"Aren't I entitled to a phone call?"

"We have notified Sionis about your location. Unless you had someone else you want to call?"

"Nope. Just checking." If Roman knew it was only a matter of time until the fireworks. Feeling a surge of confidence, Victor allowed himself to grin and kicked his feet up on top of the steel table. "In that case, I'll sit back and wait for Roman."

"You're certainly sure of yourself." 

"How long ago did you make the call?"

"Uh, I think fifteen minutes?" The Captain wasn't sure but it was only a quick check of the phone records. "What does it matter-?"

Suddenly the walkie-talkie on the Captain's belt lit up and sparked to life, spitting out words between the intense crackling. "Captain!" A voice called out. "We're going to need you-"

Erickson pulled his walkie-talkie from his belt, pressed the button to call him back, "Munroe?" He asked but the voice that came roaring down the other line was definitely not the officer who had first reached out for some assistance from his superior officer. 

" _ **-LET HIM GO! YOU LET HIM THE FUCK GO!**_ "

Neither of the two men had any doubts about who had come to call. Victor knew that voice, he could recognize it anywhere, and it rang out like music in his ears. To the Captain, however, the screams of Mister Sionis sounded like thunder crashing down around him and he was quick to try and calm the situation down, "Munroe, tell Mr. Sionis that we need Zsasz for questioning-"

" _ **GIVE ME THAT!**_ " Roman shouted and another wave of static came down the other end. When he spoke again it was louder and clearer. He had clearly been able to get Munroe's walkie-talkie from him (without any resistance from the officer, Victor could only hope, or else he would see to it that the man never showed up for his next shift). " _ **I DON'T CARE WHO THE FUCK YOU THINK YOU ARE, YOU'RE GOING TO RELEASE MY HUSBAND IMMEDIATELY OR I WILL HAVE YOUR FUCKING BADGE!**_ " 

Erickson winced and, going against his better judgment and personal opinion of the man sitting across from him, flashed Victor a sympathetic look. "You married that guy?"

"I know. Isn't he great?" Victor asked grinning from ear to ear. 

Fully aware that he was not going to get any assistance from Zsasz, the Captain decided to change up his tactics. He pressed the button to speak and replied in his calmest, softest voice; the one reserved for hostage negotiations. "Mister Sinois, Roman, please be reasonable-"

" ** _IS VICTOR UNDER ARREST?_** "

"N-No but-"

" _ **THEN HE CANNOT BE DETAINED FOR THIS LONG! YOU HAVE NO GROUNDS FOR HOLDING HIM ANY LONGER!**_ "

"Hey, Captain?" Victor asked and Erickson looked so relieved to have an excuse not to speak with Roman any further that he dropped the walkie-talkie down onto the table. "Do you have a time of death for Maroni?"

"The 10th. We estimate around 8:40 that morning."

"That's the day Roman and I flew back from Vegas. We didn't get in until late that evening and we have the tickets, CCTV footage from the airport, and about a half dozen flight workers who could vouch for us." They would be a hard couple to miss and Roman, being ever the charmer, had made enough of an impression on a couple of flight attendants that solidifying their alibi would not be an issue. The matter, which had Victor sitting inside an empty room for hours on end, could be resolved with a couple of phone calls that wouldn't take longer than twenty minutes to carry out. The Captain sighed and rubbed his forehead, 

"...You're free to go." He mumbled and gestured to the door. 

Victor pulled his feet down off the table, got up, and stretched. He felt more than a little stiff after sitting there for so long. The assassin walked towards the door but paused as he was passing the Captain and flashed the man a toothy smile, "Thank you." He said before continuing along his way out, following the long, narrow hallway out into the lobby of the police station, his smile growing in size as the voice of his husband grew louder and louder with each and every step. Victor stopped in the doorway for a moment just to admire the scene before him; two officers, seasoned veterans of the force, looking like they were one more insult away from pissing their pants out of fear, while his husband stood before them, face blood-red from screaming and resembling a Celtic warrior on the fields of battle. 

The second they got home, Victor was going to fuck him, assuming he could keep his hands to himself long enough for them to make it home! God damn, Roman was so fucking hot when he was spitting fire like this! 

"Sir, please calm down-" One lone, brave cop tried to say, their arms held up in their own defense, but Roman was not having it. 

" _ **DON'T YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! TELL ME WHERE MY HUSBAND IS RIGHT NOW OR-**_ "

Yeah, Roman was going to kill someone right there and then if Victor didn't step in. As entertaining as that would be Victor was growing more than a little tired of the police station and wanted to go home so he strolled casually forward. "Hey Baby." He greeted his husband and planted a kiss on Roman's cheek. "You ready to go?"

"Victor!" Roman practically squealed and threw his arms around Victor's shoulders pulling him into a tight embrace. The alpha chuckled a little, snaked his arms around Roman's waist, and leaned in close to just lose himself in Roman's scent for a moment. Fuck, it wasn't fair for him to always smell so sickeningly sweet even when he was working himself into a sweat sending Gotham's finest into a frenzy. "You weren't answering any of my messages! I was so worried about you and then I find out that you've been detained!" 

"It's a long story," Victor told the omega and kissed him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What can I say, Bane works quickly!


	35. Chapter 35

Whereas his husband could sleep through the end of days without stirring so much as once, it was much more difficult for Roman. Maybe it was the thick walls of his childhood home or his insatiable need for the softest, cushiest bed that made him feel like he was sleeping on a giant marshmallow in order to even drift off for a second, but whatever the reason the man could be yanked from slumber at the mere sound of a pin dropping so when he heard the covers rustling followed by the sound of bare feet crossing the room to the door as Victor made his way out to the kitchen, Roman was fully awake. He kept his eyes closed and didn't say a word. If his husband was getting up this early there had to be a good reason for it. The gang leader was proven correct when about an hour later the door to their bedroom was flung open and Victor returned carrying a tray bursting with food and grinning from ear to ear, "Good morning!" 

"Good morning," Roman replied, finally opening his eyes and sitting up with a stretch. "That smells good."

"Thanks, I made it." With the assistance of some Aunt Jemima's instant pancake mix but Roman didn't to know about that part. He may very well go into organ failure if he were to realize that he was eating something with the word 'instant' printed in bold letters on the box. Victor carefully set the tray down next to Roman and handed him a glass full of orange juice. "I gave Santigo the day off."

"Oh?" Roman asked and eagerly accepted the drink which he drank nearly half of in one long sip. "May I ask why?"

"Do you remember what day it is?"

"I haven't been keeping track." The days were starting to blur together in one long stretch as he crossed them off on the calendar awaiting his projected due date. If it weren't for Victor and his phone, the gang leader would have been unable to keep on top of anything and his beloved Black Mask Club would have gone under for certain! But there wasn't anything scheduled for the club tonight which left Roman's other form of business unaccounted for. "Were we meeting with the others tonight?"

"No." Victor informed him. "It's the 17th."

"So?" Roman asked and picking up the provided fork and knife went to to dig into his breakfast when it suddenly hit him. "Wait! The 17th of July?"

"Yes!" The assassin exclaimed and pulled his husband into a warm embrace. "Happy birthday, baby!"

"Thank you!" The gang leader replied with a smile and kissed the other man's cheek. He couldn't believe it, for a moment there he had forgotten his own birthday! Oh. But this wasn't like all of his other birthdays, not with his current condition but Victor remembered that right? They'd only talked about it a couple of days ago and he was always better with remembering these things. Still, it couldn't hurt to remind him. "Uh, Victor? You remember what we talked about last week right?"

"I remembered. I arranged for something else this year." 

"Victor." Roman all but purred. "What did you get me?" 

"You'll see," Victor assured him and leaned in to press a quick peck to his husband's cheek. "Eat up. Then I have something else to show you. Consider it the first part of your present."

* * *

"I don't get it." Harley said and she could have sworn she heard Victor sigh over the phone-line like he was trying to explain advanced algebra to a kindergartener. "Usually Romy doesn't celebrate his birthday on the day, just splurges in the week after." 

"Yeah, well, Roman isn't feeling up to his...usual birthday present." Being the man who had everything shopping for Roman had always presented itself as a bit of a problem, one that had been resolved within a year of Victor and Roman being together. Both men liked sex, wild, loud, passionate sex that lasted for hours at a time and involved a plethora of toys that were otherwise neatly tucked away inside a chest under the bed but with the added weight from the baby, Roman had started to feel uncomfortable during regular sex and they'd resolved to stick to mouth and hand stuff until after the kid had been born. Whatever made things easier for his husband but the change-up in their usual dynamic left Victor scrambling to find something else that would even qualify as a birthday present in Roman's dazzling blue eyes. Turning on Lenny Kravitz' version of _American Woman_ and channeling Channing Tatum in Magic Mike just wasn't an option this year! "And with the baby coming and not being able to drink, he's not going to be holding any big parties either. So I thought this may be more his speed right now." 

"So this is a rogues' affair?" The clown asked; a small gathering of their alliance to both strengthen their bonds as partners in crime and enjoy the delicious labors of Santigo. The promise of five-star food was enough to guarantee a turn-out. "I'll get everybody over there. What do you think our time window is for getting everything ready before he wakes up?" 

"Depends. I can run interference and give you an hour, hour and a half at the most." 

"That's more than enough time. I'll get Ivy, start calling the others, and gather up some snacks. See you soon Zsaszy!" 

* * *

The second Roman finished eating Victor set his dishes aside, took his husband by the hand, and gently guided him up and out of bed and towards the bathroom. Waiting for him was a fresh, hot bath and a couple of fluffy towels set aside on the counter for when Roman was finished. Victor briefly considered in his initial planning adding rose petals but decided that was far too cheesy for this and decided upon something else instead. Something pink and purple and currently dissolving in the bathwater. "What's this?" Roman asked, the color of the water catching his eye. "Victor, you didn't!" 

"Yeah, I did. I went to Lush for you."

Roman knelt down (as best as he could at six months pregnant and starting to feel the effects of the additional weight) and ran his fingers through the water. Something about the scent and the bright magenta color it turned the water struck him as familiar. "Sex bomb?"

"It's your favorite right because I bought a couple of them." And Victor had no plans to return to that blasted store any time in the near future if he had anything to say about it! The only Lush in Gotham happened to be inside the local mall and dead center in the middle of a string of stores seemingly frequented entirely by tweenage girls. While there were men there too (because bath bombs were something that could be enjoyed by anyone), it always seemed like Victor was stalked around the store by a gaggle of gossipy little girls who couldn't take their eyes off his scars. It was fucking unsettling! Pre-teen girls were the scariest creatures on this planet...

"It is. Thank you." Roman said and rewarded his husband's sacrifice with a quick kiss to his lips. He started to unbutton the top of his pajamas but paused when he noticed that Victor was just standing there and not making the effort to get undressed himself. "Aren't you going to join me?"

"In a few minutes. I just need to check on something first." 

Roman shrugged his shoulders and continued with the buttons of his top, "Sure. Take as much time as you need." 

Victor grinned and leaned in to give his husband one last kiss before darting out of the bathroom, taking the time to close the door behind him, and sprinting through the apartment to meet Harley and the others at the lift. If they had timed it just right, they'd all be coming up just as Roman was dipping his feet in the warm, soothing bathwater. Sure enough, the doors to the lift opened and the others quietly filed out. Victor caught Harley by the shoulder and directed her towards the door leading up to the roof. "Door's unlocked. Go!" he whispered and she nodded and signaled for the others to follow her. As they were making their way upstairs, Victor turned and raced back to the bathroom. He slid to a halt outside the door and knocked once before entering. "I'm back!" 

In the short time Victor had been gone Roman had discarded the rest of his clothes and submerged himself in the bath. He smiled a little upon seeing his husband again and let out a contented sigh, "You spoil me, Victor. If this is just the appetizer I can't wait to see the main course."

The assassin knelt down next to the bathtub and reached into gently caress his husband's cheek, "When you're done with your bath, I'll take you up to the roof and show you."

"The roof?" Roman asked. 

"I've been thinking that we should use the space more." The stars in Gotham's sky may have been difficult to see at times but that didn't mean that they couldn't try in their quiet little space above the city's skyline. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry but I could not resist throwing in a reference to Chris Messina's dance moves on The Mindy Project. Ever since I saw those gif sets on Tumblr man...oh boy!


	36. Chapter 36

Roman Sionis, no matter what state he was in, always found a way to enjoy himself at a party. There was one time back when the Black Mask Club had first opened that Roman had developed a case of the flu and still had found a way to make his rounds that night! So, when he was guided out onto the roof by his husband and greeted by the rest of their alliance gathered around to help celebrate his birthday, Roman quickly recovered from the surprise and began making his rounds there too. Victor had stayed glued to his side as they approached the Riddler and the Penguin sharing a drink together. Edward's eyes nearly popped out of his head, "Wow! You've gotten so much bigger from the last time I've seen you!"

So much for trying to keep things casual and fun. Oswald sighed and rubbed at his temples, already feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on, all the while his companion stood there grinning, completely unaware (or feigning ignorance) of the suffering he was causing the other man. Once he was certain that he was not about to collapse to the floor from a migraine Oswald took the liberty of elbowing Edward in the side. "For someone so smart, Edward, you're an absolute moron. Were you raised in a barn?" 

"Fuck off, Ozzy." Was Edward's well-thought-out response and gave Oswald a light shove in return. Having spoken to the two for less than a minute and already grown tired of their antics, Roman sighed and maneuvered around them to go and talk to Jonathan who was off by himself, leaning against the ledge and looking out at the city skyline. Oswald and Edward were too consumed with what was turning into a literal shoving contest to notice his departure which suited Roman just fine. 

"Hello Jonathan," He greeted the other rogue and leaned against the ledge too. "You look well. Is that some color in your face?"

"Oh! Yes!" Jon said and absentmindedly reached up to rub his cheek. "Thanks for noticing..."

"In fact, one could say that you're glowing." Roman continued and as he had suspected the color started to rush to Jonathan's face. He knew what that meant; good old Johnny boy was getting some! "Is it Eddie?"

"No!" Jonathan was quick to answer and took one last long look out at the city before pushing himself up, turning heel, and wandering off to join one of the groups that had formed. However, the doctor was not-so-far out of range that Roman couldn't hear what he said next, "Never again."

"Never again?" Roman repeated, "Wait! Jonathan come back!"

While Roman chased after the Scarecrow, Victor had been ambushed by their other guests and pulled away from his husband's side to join them. "Zaszy!" Harley all but squealed and threw her arms around the killer, pulling him into a comfortable hug. "How are ya feelin'? I heard about your run-in with the GPD." 

"It was no big deal. It wasn't even for something I did." Being picked up by the Gotham PD was one thing, it came with the territory of being employed in organized crime, but the fact that it wasn't even in regards to something he or Roman did was so insulting, especially considering the way that Maroni had met his end. Victor wondered if the others had heard about the details. He rubbed at the back of his neck and shifted awkwardly at the memory. "Two-Face killed Maroni and they tried to stick it on me...like I would be so sloppy with a kill." 

"Fucking Two-Face!" Harley exclaimed. "What an Al Capone wanna-be!" 

"Do us a favor and try to keep down the Two-Face talks?" Victor asked. "Roman's still pretty upset about it."

"I don't blame him." Ivy replied. "I wasn't the biggest fan of Harvey Dent-"

"You tried to kill him." Harley pointed out. 

"I try to kill a lot of people." Ivy corrected her. The list was long and distinguished, baring the names of over a hundred corporate executives belonging to major companies not only in Gotham but along the east coast who were responsible for illegal dumping, mass logging, and the like. If the local government was not going to take care and enforce the country's environmental laws, then she was going to handle it. "But this...this is a lot." 

"Let's talk about something else!" Harley suggested, "You got about three more months before the baby comes! You have to be getting excited!" She tugged Victor's shirt, pulling him down closer to her level, and added in a hushed whisper, "You remember our little wager, right?"

"I remember. If you're right, please just pick something that won't end in Roman divorcing me, okay?"

Harley gasped and, letting Victor, placed both her hands over her heart. "I am shocked that you would even imply such a thing from me!" 

If it weren't for the sudden arrival of husband, stepping right where the clown had been and placing his arms around Victor's shoulders. "Hi," He greeted the two women surrounding Victor and quickly pecked the other man on the cheek before adding, "Bane and Jonathan are fucking."

"What?!" Harley shouted.

Ivy seemed a little less shaken by this "great revelation". If anything she seemed impressed even going so far as to smirk, "Good for him." 

"How the fuck did John survive that?" Harley asked and looked between her girlfriend and the other couple as she tried to do the math on this. It just wasn't checking out! The size difference alone was troubling and then there was the fact that she wasn't entirely solid on either man's previous romantic history for reference. They weren't as open about their sex lives as the rest of their acquaintances, which wasn't a bad thing, but definitely made the answer to how Jonathan survived what was essentially sex with the strongest man alive harder to determine. "Maybe he has a type or something? Like, big bears are his type?"

"It has to be. Either that or Bane has a thing for spooky twinks and has experience not annihilating people he's trying to fuck." Ivy suggested, which made a lot more sense to her seeing as Jonathan could barely remember to eat, shower, and sleep, let alone go out and get dicked down on the regular. Suddenly her face twisted into a frown and she turned her head to look towards the stairwell. "Did you hear that?"

Roman, Victor, and Harley looked towards the stairs too and immediately became aware of what she was talking about; footsteps as someone climbed their way up to the roof to join the party. Victor took a couple of steps in front of his husband as the girls got ready to throw the first punches (Harley making a mental note to never come to the Black Mask Club without her trusty bat) and the other four party-goers individually became aware of the situation. Out of the corner of his eye, Victor saw Oswald looking for something sharp that he could use for a weapon. It wasn't long until the intruder reached the top of the stairs and everyone was able to get a good look at his face. Roman pushed his way forward, "Harvey. What are you-"

The man in question held his hands up to show that he was unarmed and offered the assembled group an easy-going grin, "We're not here to fight." He stated. "We just wanted to stop by and celebrate our friend's birthday with him."

"Harvey." Roman murmured and before he knew what he was doing was standing before his old friend, wrapping his arms around him, pulling him into a hug and burying his face in the unscorched crook of Harvey's neck. 

"Two-Face, love. Two-Face." Harvey corrected him but still returned the hug. His eyes went past Roman, however, to the group gathered around them, watching and waiting for the first sign of a struggle. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the worst criminals in Gotham all gathered under-or rather on one roof." His gaze landed on Cobblepot and he couldn't help himself, "Hello, Oswald. Sorry about the job at Gotham First National last Thursday but you know, you snooze you lose." 

Seeing as the man in question was currently holding someone who was heavily pregnant, Oswald swallowed his pride and replied swallowed nervously. "Yes, well, perhaps we should find a way to co-ordinate to avoid such things in the future."

"You inviting us to join the club, Oswald?" Harvey asked with an eager grin but his gaze was quickly pulled back down to the man with his arms around him and his tone changed completely. "Maybe later. We didn't come here to discuss business."

Meanwhile Edward inched forward to insert himself between Harley and Ivy and whispered to the eco-terrorist at his side, "Is it just me or is he kinda hot?" 

Ivy looked her ex-boyfriend up and down before replying, "It's just you." 

Her comment had no effect on the man, unfortunately, and Eddie came sauntering forward with undeserved confidence. He tapped Harvey on the shoulder to catch his attention and flashed the man a toothy grin. "Hey," He said. "Riddle me this, what does your ass have in common with Jupiter? They're both out of this world."

Roman gagged but was able to choke back his bile. Before he could reign Eddie back in line Harvey grabbed hold of the Riddler by his tie and pulled him tantalizingly close, "You ever heard of the phrase _too much to handle_?" The former DA asked with a smirk. "Because, you leprechaun looking motherfucker, we are definitely too much for you to handle." And on that note Harvey pushed the other man back. Eddie stumbled and fell flat on his ass at Ivy's feet. 

"We got you a present." The former DA told him and Roman carefully stepped back out of the hug. "Well, two presents actually, but since we never got to meet up we never got to give them to you." 

"You didn't need to do that Har-" Roman cut himself off. "Two-Face."

"Well, we flipped on it." Harvey confessed but before Roman could ask him what he meant by that, Harvey continued. "And you always did know how to party. Though admittedly back then you tried to hide your connections to the underworld."

"Heh. Funny." 

Having learned nothing, Edward pushed himself back up to his feet with a bounce, a devious grin spreading upon his freckled face. "So you two really go far back huh? Got any fun stories about our boy here?" 

"We got a couple," Harvey admitted. "We don't know how many he'd be cool with us sharing though." 

Was that a challenge? Roman crossed his arms in front of his chest, "Try me." 

"Well, there is the New Years 1999 story-"

The color drained completely from Roman's face, "No!" He said quickly. "Stop right there. No. Not that story." 

"Why?" Eddie asked. "What happened in 1999?" 

"No, Roman's right. It really isn't appropriate." 

"Oh, it's one of _those_ stories." Didn't that just summarize the entire thing. Edward had been attending Gotham University during the late 90s, early 2000s, he'd read those gossip magazines whenever he was strapped for something to read, and he knew exactly what Roman had gotten up to with his closest buddies back in the day but it was one thing to read about it in a cheesy gossip rag than to hear from someone who had actually lived it! "How much could I pay you to hear that little tale later?"

"Bane!" Roman screamed and the man in question made his way to the front of the crowd. The gang leader gestured to his fellow rogue and asked, "Would you mind?"

That was all Bane needed to hear. He grinned beneath his mask and had to throw up a fist-pump before carrying out Roman's request. "I have been waiting for someone to ask me this for years!" He exclaimed, scooped Edward up into his arms, and carried him towards the edge of the roof, all the while Riddler squirmed and pleaded to be put down. The rest of the party followed them over to the edge, eager to see what came next. It may have been a little harsh but Roman wasn't going to apologize for that. It was only a two-story drop. Edward had survived far worse. 


	37. Chapter 37

As time passed Roman had been cutting his hours at the Black Mask club significantly. He was becoming exhausting more easily and doing rounds while he was visibly pregnant earned him at least a dozen strange looks for partygoers who didn't seem to care that he wasn't actually drinking or doing drugs, it would seem that most people had this notion that even being around such things had the potential to be hazardous. Overzealous bastards, but rather than get into an argument with his own patrons every night Roman found it easier to just hold back. He trusted his staff. He knew they could handle things without him. In the meantime, this newfound free time gave Roman ample opportunity to catch up on some shows that had been recommended to him by his fellow rogues. He had been halfway through season one of Bojack Horseman (Ivy's recommendation) when his phone started to ring forcing Roman to pause it to answer, "Hello?"   
  
"Roman Sionis?" A reserved woman's voice sounded on the other line. "I'm Janet Van Dorn with the district attorney's office. I'm calling you in regards to your father's trial."  
  
"Oh." Well this was a surprise? What had the old bastard gotten himself up to this time; found a way to pay one of the nurses into smuggling him in booze? Roman wouldn't put it past him. If there was a way for him to get drunk, even while lacking the sufficient limbs and organs to communicate his need, Richard would find a way. He and his son were similar in that regard and that regard only. Despite Janet being unable to see his face and therefore notice the intense fury subtitling building Roman forced a grin. He had always found it easier to fake being pleasant whenever he was smiling. "Is everything alright?"  
  
"Everything is fine," Janet assured him which, unbeknownst to her, did not offer Roman much comfort. If she had been calling to inform him that due to the condition his father was in when police found him the man had passed away, now that would have offered him comfort. If that was what the call was about and if Roman wasn't only a few months out from having a baby, as a matter of fact, that phone call would have caused him a great deal of joy and lead to the most extravagant, most expensive party ever held at the Black Mask Club. Alas, that day would come eventually. If Richard could hold out for a while Roman may have even be able to enjoy a drink at that party with his grown child, wouldn't that be a hoot? "But in light of current events, we have received word today that the trial date has been pushed back as we try to find a new prosecutor for the case."   
  
"Oh." They were replacing Harvey already. It made sense from a legal standpoint, justice in the city had to keep on rolling out even if it was at a snail's pace, but it just seemed so...fast. Was no one in that office concerned about reaching out to their associate, in getting him the help he so clearly needed? Roman wanted to ask her about that, see whatever progress was being made regarding his old friend. What he asked instead was, "Do you know when it will be rescheduled?"   
  
"It's hard to say right now. I promise you though as soon as we have an update, I will notify you myself."  
  
"I would appreciate that. Thank you." Roman cut the call short and to prevent himself from annihilating another one of his phones carefully set the device down on the coffee table. It wasn't easy, his hands were shaking, but somehow Roman managed. Once his phone was safely set aside Roman's eyes landed on the next nearest object, a throw-pillow that always seemed to get the raw deal whenever he flew into a rage. He grabbed it and threw it at the wall, "Fuck!" He screamed. "Fucking fuck!" Out of pure instinct Roman kicked at the coffee table and immediately regretted it. "...ow."  
  
Having heard the commotion from the other room Victor poked his head in to check on his husband. "You okay?"  
  
"No." Roman replied and brushed some of his hair back out of his eyes. It really was a curse having such soft and bouncy hair like his; whenever he got angry it became messed up and he was forever putting it back in place. "Richard's trial date was pushed back."  
  
"Oh no." Victor entered the living room and took hold of Roman's hands to keep him from unintentionally causing himself any further harm. "I'm sorry sweetheart."   
  
"I'm not asking for the moon here, am I? I just want my father to rot in custody for the rest of his life."   
  
"It isn't much." Victor was certain that a lot of people held similar wishes. "I'm sorry." He repeated and, lifting Roman's hands, pressed a kiss to the back of them. It seemed like the longer they spent in this apartment the more bad news they received. They both needed to get out of there, get some fresh air, ignore their problems for just a few hours. "Hey, how about we go out to dinner tonight?"

"Out?" That wasn't a bad idea. As much as he adored his place and all the beautiful pieces Roman had adoring the place, it got so predictably boring being cooped up there all day. "Where? Not fast food but it can't be one of my usual spots." One of Gotham's five-star restaurants that usually would require calling several years ahead of time in hopes of securing a reservation, unless you happened to be a very wealthy crime boss with a Rolodex full of connections who could blow the place up at the drop of a hat. There was only so far those connections could go, however, and even with the threat of destruction looming overhead none of them would allow Roman inside dressed so casually and it wasn't as if he had many options these days. In case Victor didn't make the connection he explained it, "None of my best suits fit anymore." 

"We'll find a new spot. Not fast food but a little more casual. A place where I can ask for ketchup without the waitstaff judging me." 

"Can it at least be a place where they have to bring the ketchup and it's not already on the table?" 

"You're not setting the bar very high baby." 

* * *

Roman stared at the monstrous plate of food sitting before him. It smelled incredible, like something out of a wet dream (if food porn was your thing), and the amount of fresh, salty fries stacked next to him was enough that Roman felt he could feed a family of four with them alone, and then there was the main course which was loaded to the ceiling with cheese, onions, peppers, and several ingredients that Roman could not identify. "I don't get it." He finally said after what had been minutes just staring his meal down in an attempt to analyze it. "This is so much food and we're supposed to believe that it's only ten dollars for all of this." 

By now Victor had almost completely devoured the majority of his fries and had his eyes set on the main course, "That's chilidogs for you. I can't believe you never had one before." 

"I think my mother would have slapped me for even suggesting it." Roman admitted and courageously plucked a french fry from his plate to munch on. He decided to leave out the part that he had tasted his first french fry at the age of twelve when Bruce had dragged him along to this little out of the way diner near Gotham Academy after they had soccer practice together. It was a similar place to the one that Victor had brought him to now; a couple of booths, brightly colored tile floor, waitresses in pale pink colored dresses with little white aprons, it looked and felt like something leftover from the 1950s. 

Victor just smiled, "Well, we'll help you catch up." Their kid was going to experience it all; the high-class bistros and the little greasy spoons scattered across the city. 

Roman smiled too and decided to dive straight into his chilidog. He scooped the thing up (it had to weigh around three pounds) and took one large, messy bite. At that exact moment, an older woman was walking past their booth on her way to the bathroom when she caught sight of the couple, Roman's condition, and squealed with joy. "Oh, you are absolutely stunning!" She gushed. Her happiness immediately faded when she saw what he was in the middle of munching on. "Oh, but should you really be eating that?"

Not even bothering to swallow, Roman barked out "Who the fuck are you?" 

"What language too." The woman said clucking her tongue. Her eyes fell on Victor and with a little smile that was supposed to be charming jokingly added, "Hormones." 

She looked at Victor for a moment and waited for him to jump in, to bond with her over the mocking of his husband. Victor just reiterated Roman's question, "Who the fuck are you?"

The woman scoffed and for the briefest moment it looked like she actually may return to her table, her need for the bathroom having been forgotten, but then as Roman was helping himself to some of his fries he felt the familiar sensation of a hand pressed firmly against his stomach. "Woah!" He shouted, knocking the woman's hand away, and scuttling back further into the booth until his back was pressed against the wall. "Who said that you could touch me?" 

"I'm not touching you I'm touching the baby." The woman whined. 

"Where the fuck do you think the baby is?" Roman asked, too caught off guard by the entitlement of the woman to even be angry about the whole situation. 

"Come on-" The woman muttered and reached to touch him again but by now Roman had gotten over his initial surprise and the fury began to settle in. He grabbed hold of the woman's hand and squeezed it as hard as he could. "I'll make it easy for you." He snarled. "If you try to touch me again I will shatter your geriatric hands so kindly retreat back to your table and leave us the fuck alone."

The woman struggled to yank her hand free but to no avail. "How dare you speak to me-"

Victor shot the woman a menacing glare that could have made a hardened criminal burst into tears (and had, in the past) and in a low, guttural growl spat out the command. "GO. AWAY." 

That was enough for the woman. As soon as Roman let go of her hand, now bright red, she scrambled off back to the booth she had been sharing with an older gentleman who had to have been her husband given how embarrassed he looked about the whole situation. Seeing as he hadn't felt the need to step in and pull his wife back away from them, he could go fuck himself too. Roman kept his eyes on her until she was secured back in her booth. "What a fucking cunt." 

"I know. Don't worry though. She'll get hers." 

"She better. I swiped her ID while you were getting up in her face." Roman stated and, sure enough, held the thin piece of plastic up for Victor to see. A little trick he had picked up from one Cassandra Cain; the very same that she had used to pick up his diamond ages ago. Though he wouldn't admit it out loud (out of his own pride), Roman was glad that he hadn't killed her. The little shit had moxie. "Look here, it's her home address." 

Victor smirked, "You want a carved face or a slit throat?" 

"Whichever you prefer, my dear. Just do me a favor and bring me back her hands." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Roman. Just once he'd like to go out to eat without getting kidnapped or harassed. He really needs to just get a GrubHub account by this point.


	38. Chapter 38

Things had quickly spiraled out of control in the months that had passed since the first package containing stuff Roman had ordered for the baby arrived at the apartment. It was no secret that the man had a taste for the finer things and an online shopping addiction to match but still Victor had held onto the hope that his husband would have shown some restraint. After so many years with Roman, he really should have known better. The only thing that Roman had ever not gone full-force on was his wedding and Victor had a feeling it was entirely out of spite (not that he would ever complain about it. He would have been have gotten married in a courthouse if it meant that Roman was his for the rest of their lives) and not Roman's pure desire for something small. Whenever Roman got into one of these little spending/decorating sprees, Victor found it best to just step back and let him do his thing but this was getting ridiculous. All he was trying to do was walk down the hall to get a drink of water before bed without tripping over some boxes! Victor kept walking, passing Roman sitting at the kitchen island enjoying a late-night snack, to pour himself that drink and asked, "You've amassed quite the collection there, Boss. Are you sure there isn't anything I can help you with?"  
  
Roman didn't look up from his bowl of cinnamon toast crunch, "I got it handled."   
  
"If you say so." Victor wasn't so sure how handled a situation could be when it involved enough cardboard boxes to make the most awesome childhood fort (which was a tragedy considering that they knew no children except for Cass who would have no interests in crafting such a thing) but he had learned a long time ago not to argue with his employer (later husband) over these sorts of things. "Are you almost finished?"  
  
"Want a tour, do you?" To show his work off now when there were still things to put away, clothes to hang up in the closet would be far too premature! Even if it was just Victor! "Well, you're in luck. I just want to unpack a couple of boxes of clothes and then everything will be perfect!"  
  
Unpack a couple of boxes? That sounded heavy. "You sure I can't-"  
  
"It's covered."  
  
~~~

Roman's side of the bed was empty. That was highly concerning but at this stage in the pregnancy and after all they had been through, Victor was used to it. Instead of immediately jumping straight to a kidnapping plot and calling in the calvary, Victor crawled out of bed and staggered out into the hall to go check the roof. As fate would have it he didn't need to go that far. As soon as he opened the door to the bedroom the assassin could hear the faint sound of Roman's voice carrying through the hall coming from the baby's room. Was he still unpacking clothes? How much stuff did he order for the baby anyway? At this point, the kid's closet was going to burst and they were going to outgrow half of his clothes before he wore a quarter of them! Victor stopped outside of the doorway just to listen for a moment. Whenever he had caught Roman singing in the shower his husband usually preferred some early 2000s rock song (Green Day seemed to be his favorites, at least to belt out in the bathroom whenever he thought that he was alone) but whatever he was singing now was so slowed down and sweet, yet strangely familiar. Victor had heard the song before but he had no idea where he had listened to it before. It took Victor far longer than necessary for him to put two and two together and realize that this wasn't just Roman singing to himself but to their baby. Victor cracked a small smile. What a softie. Now if he could only figure out where he had heard that song before? "Hmm." Victor said finally making his presence known. "You have a really pretty singing voice Boss. How come you never perform in the club?"  
  
"Victor!" Roman screamed and dropped the onesie he had been folding. "I need to tie a bell around you or something..."   
  
"Sorry," Victor offered. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"You didn't scare me," The gang leader replied with a huff. "You know what, this is actually perfect. Get in here for a minute."

"You finished?" The assassin asked and finally took a good hard look at the room. It looked like something out of a catalog infused with a couple of signature touches courtesy from Roman. In the end, he had gone with Bane's decision to use the lemon meringue and the result gave the room this soft vibe that was perfect for an infant. When their child got older, they could worry about darkening the colors. The furniture Roman had chosen to go with were all solid oak including the crib, the changing table, the wardrobe, and even a cute little bookcase which was currently housing all of the books that Jonathan had given them at the baby shower. The linens in the baby's crib were dark blue and matched both the rug and the curtains that Roman had installed over the nursery room window which were stylish but also helped keep out the view of the alley. "Roman, how the hell did you do all of this by yourself?"

"What can I say? I'm a miracle worker." Well, maybe not a miracle worker, but someone who had enough money and power to make a crew of highly trained criminals bend to his will and if his will was for them to assemble the crib he'd ordered online so be it. "And I may have yelled at a couple of our guys until they agreed to help me move the heavier stuff. It gets better though. I got something else to show you." Roman explained, headed over towards the baby's crib, pulled a blanket out from inside, and held it up for his husband to see. The blanket was medium-sized, circular, fluffy, and designed to look like a baseball. "I thought it would be cute." Well, actually Harley thought it would be cute when she was looking over Roman's shoulder while he was on Bloomingdale's website and the gang leader agreed with her. "Are you going to teach them how to play when they get bigger?" 

Victor couldn't help but smile at that, "It's the American dream, isn't it?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a cute little short chapter. It's hard to believe that this fic is almost over! Twelve more chapters, about nine until the baby actually comes! I don't know what I'm going to do to kill time in quarantine when this is all over!


	39. Chapter 39

One month into learning about the pregnancy Victor and Roman had to sit down and work out a couple of compromises otherwise Victor wasn't going to survive the mornings. Eggs were out of the question as the scent of them still turned Roman's stomach but Victor had managed to get him to budge on the coffee. Originally Roman had wanted to lock their entire supply in the safe until further notice, even the imported stuff, but Victor had gotten him to budge. One cup every now and again wouldn't hurt the baby, and in the meantime, decaf was working just fine as a substitute, all the while Victor got to enjoy the premium dark roast that got him up in the mornings. He stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, and went straight to the coffeemaker to kick off his day. As he waited for the water to boil Victor went to grab a clean mug from the dishwasher. He opened it up, reached blindly inside, and his heart jumped when he felt something damp and soft in place of glass or ceramic. "What the hell?" He asked and pulled the questionable object out. "Hey Boss?"  
  
Roman, who was blissfully eating some pancakes at the island in the kitchen, didn't even bother to look up. "Yeah?"  
  
"Did you uh, get much sleep last night?"  
  
"Plenty. Why?" Roman asked and finally looked over at his husband to see what he was talking about. Victor was holding up one of his polos, damp and wrinkled after it had gone through the dishwasher. "Oh! I...I don't remember doing that..."   
  
"It's okay," Victor assured him. It wasn't like he didn't have a closet full of polos at his disposal. "You just let your mind slip. Happens to everyone."   
  
"Yeah, I mean everyone has their bad days-" Roman replied with the wave of his hand. Unfortunately for him his hand connected with the tall glass of apple juice that he had been sipping on and sent it soaring off the counter and shattering all over the floor. "...I forgot I left that there."  
  
"Yeah, I got that." That glass had been ugly anyway. Putting his coffee on hold for a moment, Victor decided to go and grab their broom from the closet and called back over his shoulder, "Be careful. I'll clean this glass up and then maybe we could watch a movie or something to take your mind off things?"   
  
"I'd like that...Victor, have you seen my phone?"  
  
Roman's phone. His husband's phone. The phone that belonged to the love of his life. The very same phone that he had seen sitting on the island right next to Roman while he ate his breakfast. That phone. Victor grabbed the broom, doubled back, and pointed it out to him while passing by on his way to sweep up the glass. "Here." He stated. It was one thing to be a little clumsy, to be a little forgetful, but it was literally sitting right next to him! Yeah, something was definitely up with Roman today. "I think you should lay down for a second, okay?"  
  
Roman started to get up but stopped and shot his husband a glare, "Don't give me that look."  
  
"What look?"  
  
"You're looking at me like I'm stupid. I'm not stupid."  
  
"I know that and you're the smartest person I know. I think you just need to lay down for just a second."   
  
"Fine then." Roman stood up and cautiously made his way around the broken glass and into the living room to do as requested. He made it to the couch without incident but when he attempted to sit and get comfortable he realized something. Sitting across from him, casually laid over the back of one of the chairs, was Roman's favorite blanket, the fleece one he had stolen from Victor back when the assassin had started living with him, the one that was usually neatly folded at the end of the couch on the exact chance that Roman desires a quick nap! "...fuck." he muttered. How the fuck was he supposed to nap now?! Back in the kitchen Victor let out a laugh, "What the fuck are you laughing at that?"  
  
"I don't mean to laugh. It's just-"  
  
"Stop fucking laughing!" Roman screamed at him. "I'll kill you! I swear to God!"  
  
That was an empty threat and they both knew it. There was no way in Hell Roman could get through a morning without Victor, let alone be a single parent. After disposing of the glass shards and leaving the broom leaning against the counter, Victor strolled into the living room, grabbed the blanket, and handed it over to husband before having a seat next to his feet. "Better?"  
  
"Better." Roman agreed, pulling it around himself. "Maybe I just need to get out of the apartment for a while. Get some fresh air and a change of scenery."  
  
"Out of the apartment?" Victor asked. "So around other people?" Considering the staring of bad luck his husband had been having lately he wasn't so sure that being around other people was the best option. It sounded like a lawsuit waiting to happen and they were still down one lawyer.   
  
"Yes, other people!" Roman retorted and, snatching up the nearby throw-pillow, lightly whacked Victor with it. "It's still so warm out, how about the beach or Robinson Park?"  
  
Victor still had to think about it. "Robinson Park could be nice." He decided. Definitely better than the beach where there would be waves, riptides, undertow, annoying tourists getting in the way, crabs, broken glass, sharp shells, and a mess of seaweed that Roman could slip on. All he had to worry about at the park was the occasional spiteful bird whose confidence outgrew its tiny little body. Victor could handle a couple of rogue birds!...still it may not be a bad idea to get some backup. Just in case they happened to go to the park on the one day a tornado happened to form in Gotham. "I could message Harley and Ivy, Jonathan and Bane and get them to join us?"   
  
"Like a couple's thing? That could be fun." And the fun could start before they even got to the park! While Harley and Jonathan unmasked could probably get away with wandering the streets unhidden, Bane and Ivy were going to need some help with the disguises and who better to lend his assistance than one of Gotham's most revered trendsetters? ...he wondered if he could get Ivy to go green-less for one afternoon? No, that would be pushing it. And speaking of pushing it... "Are you prepared to fight off any old broads who dare to try and touch me?" Roman asked, a smirk forming on his lips.   
  
"Always," Victor replied with a smirk of his own. "We could see how far Bane can throw an old crone!" He knew that Harley had been pitching that idea for a while! 


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to call this chapter Roman needs a fucking hug and a good long cry. Oh, and the next chapter is going to be called Roman gets a fucking hug and has a good long cry. Just a heads up.

The north side of Robinson Park quickly became abandoned save for a few curious onlookers after the second park bench had been yanked up out of its fastenings and held proudly over the head of the man responsible. Two people, a man of average build with a plethora of scars and a young woman with colorful hair and a funky sense of dress, occupying that bench were cheering him on as he did so, all the while their significant others stood off to the side watching the scene unfold. Jon sighed and brushed some hair out of his eyes, "Oh, this is going to end in a swarm of cop cars. I can tell."   
  
"Let them have their fun," Roman told him unable to hold back the smile that was forming on his face. "I think we can handle the cops right now."  
  
"They're like a hoard of children." Ivy mused as Bane decided to press his luck and see how far he could get Harley up in the air. The clown was grinning from ear to ear while Victor shouted encouragements, all the while the big guy was thriving off the attention and showing off his feats of strength. "It's strangely endearing and also alarming considering that one of them, very shortly, is going to be a father."  
  
"If Victor can keep me alive, he can keep our child alive." Roman retorted which earned him a look of concern from Ivy. She really didn't have much faith in him, did she? If this wasn't how Ivy acted with everyone (the only exception, of course, being her girlfriend and her charge) he may have been offended. Luckily Roman had grown wise to the eco-terrorist by now. "Oh, don't give me that look. I'm going to help."   
  
Ivy narrowed her eyes into a glare, "You better take care of this kid, Roman. Or I will."   
  
"Kinda the point of having godparents, isn't it?" Roman joked, earning himself an eye-roll from the woman. Nothing was set in stone yet. Given their particular line of work, both Roman and Victor were aware that it was in their best interests to arrange godparents for their baby on the off-chance that something happened. At first, Roman had been considering reaching out to Bruce or Harvey about it but he didn't know anymore. Which left them with one other choice; Harley. Harley and her girlfriend who was currently standing next to him and playfully 'judging' him. "Thought you didn't want kids."  
  
"I don't want kids right now. Well, other than Cass. Cass is okay. Cass counts. But if Harley and I were to consider having another, having a literal baby, we're going to have to wait. I want my kid to be able to swim in the ocean without getting caught in a plastic wrapper like a sea turtle." It didn't seem like that major of a request but it required a lot of work on Ivy's part. And a lot of corporate executives who needed to die a whole lot. "What about you Jon?"  
  
"I never put much thought into it." He admitted before the realization dawned on him that he was being baited into a conversation about his future plans for a relationship that had barely began and he let out a loud sigh, "You people. I start going out with a guy for a couple of weeks and already you're on my case about babies!"   
  
"Yes, leave him alone Ivy," Roman said with a smirk and took the liberty of squishing Jon's cheeks together like one would do with an infant. "He's baby."  
  
"You're both ridiculous," Ivy informed them both. Like they weren't already aware of that fact. Spotting a familiar colorful cart a couple of yards away currently being swarmed by a crowd composed of children and other adults alike, she suddenly had a craving. "Let's get ice cream." She suggested and without waiting to see if Roman and Jon were following her, started walking towards the ice-cream vendor. Of course, they followed her. Who in their right mind would turn down the chance to get some ice cream on such a perfect day? As they made their way across the path, after passing a little old lady walking with what they could only assume was her granddaughter, Roman got the idea to share the story of his first chilidog with the group...and the woman who had nearly ruined it for him.   
  
"That was your first time having a stranger get pushy about your bump?" Jon asked once Roman had finished his spinning his yarn about the old bat who dared to touch one of the most dangerous men in Gotham and the price that she had paid for such insolence. "You're lucky then. People get nuts when they see that you're pregnant."  
  
That was an odd statement from someone in Jon's position and that did not go unnoticed by either of his companions. "How would you know?" Ivy asked.   
  
Jon shrugs. "Reddit videos."  
  
Why wasn't Roman surprised? From the muffled sound of the laugh Ivy had managed to choke back, Jon's answer hadn't come as a surprise for her either. The ice cream cart was only a couple of feet away now and they were able to take their place at the end of the line with only around seven people ahead of them. Seeing as it was a small operation selling things like popsicles and ice cream sandwiches for change, it wouldn't take the trio more than five minutes to reach their turn. Roman was already counting the change in his pocket while he replied, "Don't believe everything you see on red-" Out of the corner of his eye Roman saw a flash of gold. He looked up, his eyes landed on the source, and his heart stopped beating inside his chest.   
  
It must have looked strange to both of Jon and Ivy; one moment their friend was standing there, happily contributing to their conversation, and the next he had gone completely pale and looked like he may faint, with the words dying in his throat. "Roman?" Jon asked and cautiously placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, crouching down so he is closer to the other man's level. "Hey Roman? You in there?"  
  
That was enough to shake him out of it. He straightened up, composed himself, and in a voice so low it was practically a growl said, "Go get the others. Try and get them out of here as discreetly as possible."  
  
"Why?" Ivy asked and had the good sense to try and look around to see what was causing the man so much distress. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary; kids playing together on some swings set up a couple of yards away, some of the happily slurping the ice cream they had just purchased others content to chase each other around, a few couples lounging on the grass reading or looking up at the passing clouds, a few people just out for a casual stroll in the park and people-watching like the two women who had their backs to the group and were making their way towards the east exit. Huh. You know, the more that she looked the more those two seemed familiar. Maybe it was their sense of style; while both of the women were extraordinarily beautiful, one seemed dressed to the nines in gold including a tight pair of pants that Ivy would have killed for in green and the other looked like she was heading to a rave with her short-cropped black hoodie, thigh-high boots, and black shorts. Ivy had to have known them from somewhere, she just didn't know where, but they were directly in Roman's line of sight..."You know them?"  
  
Roman's answer was short and simple. "Unfortunately."   
  
That was enough for Ivy to put two and two together. The Black Mask Club had never been Ivy's first choice to party in when she was looking for a fun night around Gotham but she had been there enough times to enjoy Roman's entire roster of performers. The woman leaving the park used to perform there a couple of times a night, whenever Roman was looking for something slowed down instead of the heavy dance jams that his DJs and singers liked to play. Still, it was hard to tell from behind so Ivy found herself asking, "She used to work for you, didn't she?"  
  
"Yes," Roman answered without taking his eyes off the pair. They were at the exit now, only a few moments from leaving his sight entirely, but he was not willing to risk it. "I'm not afraid of her if that's what you're wondering. It's her friend that has me worried."   
  
By now Jon had been able to zoom in on the source of Roman's anxiety and was scanning the two women up and down. "They don't look so tough. Bane and Victor could-"  
  
"No!" Roman snapped so suddenly that it was enough to make both Jon and Ivy jump. He took a deep breath to get him through those final moments as the two women disappeared behind the fenceline. They were gone from sight now but that did not mean that they were gone from the park. For all Roman knew they had seen him, seen them, and were sneaking around to catch the group off-guard. He wouldn't put it past _those two_. "...We should go." Before they could double-back and try to take a chunk out of them. Ivy and Jon were in no position to argue, their desire for something cool and frosty long forgotten, so they just let him lead the way back to where they had left their partners. They walked largely in silence until finally, Jon's curiosity got the better of him and he had to ask,   
  
"Care to tell me who you pissed off this time?"  
  
"Wasn't me," Roman replied with a shrug. "It was Victor."   
  
Jon let out a sharp laugh, "She has to be insane if she thinks she can go toe-to-toe against your boy-"  
  
"I'm not going to let that happen," Roman said, not even giving the other man the chance to finish that statement. As far as he was concerned, the crossbow killer would never learn about Victor Zsasz's survival and never get the chance to come so close to him again. The less that was said about the bitch, the better. They reached the edge of the park where Bane had been showing off to Victor and Harley, throwing trees, bushes, and even the other two around, but by now the three of them were lounging around on the grass. They saw the other three coming up the path, took in the looks of gloom on their faces, and started to get to climb to their feet. Harley was the first of the three to speak, "What happen-" She stopped. Roman had that look in his eyes; that crazed and unhinged look that was only reserved for _one person_. "Oh. Dinah."  
  
Victor snarled at the mention of _that woman_ , the one who had gotten so near and dear to his beloved and then tossed him aside like he was nothing, one hand flying to his belt to pull one of his signature knives from the holster. "Where is she?" He demanded. "I'll eviscerate her-!"   
  
"No you won't," Roman told him and was able to take Victor's knife from him without so much as a complaint. "Not today." He added, pocketing the knife for himself and grabbing hold of Victor's wrist. "We're going to leave now."   
  
"You want to leave?"  
  
"No," He hadn't even gotten the chance to have his ice cream yet, God damn it! "But we are going to." And on that note Roman started to drag his husband along towards the exit. Victor didn't put up much of a fight, he never could when it came to his employer and managed to maneuver around so Roman was gripping his hand instead of his wrist. If they were going to be cutting their day out for _Roman's Little Bird_ , he at least was going to be leaving the park with some amount of dignity. They led the way out, Roman not paying much attention as to whether their friends were following them or not (it wasn't like Dinah or Helena would be gunning for anyone else), something he would have to make up for later. Luckily at the moment, no one seemed to care.   
  
"Hey Romy," Harley piped up, jogging to catch up with the couple. "I'll message Montoya and see what she has to say about this. For all we know they're in town for something unrelated." The last time she'd spoken with the ex.cop she had made it seem like things were going splendidly in the new city and that they would have no need or desire to return to the shitty little hell hole that was Gotham. Whatever possible reason Dinah and Helena had for visiting Robinson Park, it couldn't have been connected to the men responsible for the formation of the birds of prey, one of which was supposed to be dead right now.   
  
"Right." Sometimes he forgot that she still had that in with them. Sometimes. It had only been months ago that he had been ready to rip her throat out but it seemed like eons ago, to the point where the gang leader was honestly surprised whenever he remembered their previous stance. There was no going back now though. Once she helped him kill his parents there was no going back; she had earned herself Roman's trust and friendship and the only thing she could possibly do to tarnish that relationship would be to kidnap the baby or something which would just be stupid considering that she could literally _ask_ to spend time with them. Odds were she was going to be their godmother. "Thank you, Harley." 

Not much else was said as everyone filed out of Robinson Park. Victor overheard Ivy mentioning something to Harley about going and getting something to eat, and Bane had mentioned that he had plans to take Jon to go see a movie once everyone split, so he seemed good to take Roman straight home. Roman didn't say much either, just laid his head against the car window and watched the streetlights they passed as Victor drove them home. It wasn't until they got back to the club, until the lift brought them back up to the apartment, that Roman collapsed completely. It was like flicking on a switch; one moment Roman was standing next to him completely stone-faced and the next he was curled up in the corner of the lift sobbing into his arms. "Roman." Victor murmured softly and knelt down so he was at his husband's level and could better wrap his arms around him and pull him into a hug. "Sweetheart." He purred and started to rub soothing circles into Roman's back. "It's okay. You don't have to cry. Everybody is okay."  
  
"She left me Victor," Roman managed to get out between the gasps for breath and sobs. "She left me and she wants to take you from me, from us!" Oh, so this wasn't entirely about Dinah was it? Her crime was something that Roman had grown painfully familiar with by now: she got close, he trusted her, he developed an affection for her, and just when he felt his most comfortable around her, she stabbed him in the back and abandoned him. It hurt, it stung like a real bitch and Roman felt the sudden desire to slit her throat whenever he saw her, but her actions were nothing new to him. Helena Bertinelli's actions, **_however_** , terrified him to the bone. In all the time that he had known him, both professionally, platonically, and romantically, no one had ever come so close to offing Victor as she had. Certainly, Bane could kill Victor if he wanted to, but there was no real fear there. Roman knew that the big guy would never even dream about it! Helena though...she could kill him, she wanted to kill him, she had dreamed about killing Victor since she had been a little girl, and she would have no qualms about ending Victor's existence if she were to ever find out that he was still breathing. And then Roman would lose someone else, his only consistent in life, the one person who loved him more than anything else in the world and worse yet, the baby would lose their father! Losing Victor would be like using the air that he needed to breathe and that was the most horrifying thing that Roman could ever imagine! The more he thought about it, the more tears poured out. "She can't have you! I can't lose you!"   
  
"I'm not going anywhere," Victor said softly and started to pepper little kisses along Roman's face and forehead. "I'm right here."   
  
Roman looked up and wiped his eyes off on his arm. "Show me." He said, his voice cracking ever so slightly. Victor had no objections to that. One of his hands started to dip below the waistband of Roman's pants but his husband stopped him, "I don't want your hands or your mouth, _I need you_."   
  
Victor stopped and cocked an eyebrow, hesitating for a second as he remembered what he and his husband had agreed upon not long ago, but there was a determined glint in Roman's eyes. He knew exactly what he wanted and who was Victor to deny the love of his life that? So, taking a page from Roman's book, Victor smiled and leaned in to kiss him with a soft, "'Kay." 


	41. Chapter 41

Roman yawned as he groggily treaded down the hallway into the kitchen, eyes cloudy with sleep, his robe pulled tight around him, and one hand resting above the curve of his stomach. "You know, I think that we'd both have a much easier time if you were to shift your schedule," He pointed out, his words slurring together slightly as he still was in the process of waking up. "Cravings are much easier to indulge in during the day than the middle of the night." Santigo was awake and able to cater to his needs for one thing, or he could send Victor to go get him something from some drive-thru for another. This late though and Roman was left to scavenge food for himself like some sort of _peasant_. "But we'll play it your way. For now."   
  
He settled on grabbing the bag of cheetos and wandering out to the living room to watch something while he ate. If he was lucky there may have been something good on (fingers crossed for the episode of COPS they filmed in Gotham's eastside). Roman grabbed the remote, made himself comfortable, and turned the tv on. Victor had left it on one of the local channels which was currently in the middle of a late-night news update on the most recent high stakes robbery to hit the west side. Roman watched as blurry footage captured by frightened onlookers displayed Two-Face's unmistakable figure, flanked by two goons, sprinting from Rosario's jewelers carrying bags full of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, anything that wasn't nailed down. So it was official: Two-Face's gang had hit the big times. "Oh no," Roman mumbled. He jumped when he felt a kick. Part of him wondered if the kid knew what they were doing. It seemed they only moved whenever their dad was completely at peace and not suspecting anything. Harley was right, this baby really was an asshole. He sighed and placed both of his hands on his stomach, "You know, I think you really would have liked Harvey and he would have liked you. He was always big on family." For the exact same reasons that Roman had always hated it. It was no secret that Christopher Dent was a bastard who couldn't bring himself to care about anything, even his only child, after his wife past and Roman could recognize bruises and broken bones in Harvey that mimicked the ones he bore throughout his upbringing but where Roman learned to build walls, to only let a selected few get close, Harvey threw open his doors well welcomed everyone, even Roman Sionis who would roll his eyes and fake paying attention whenever the other boy went into a speech about his plans for the future; his plans of a successful career helping others, of a fairytale wedding, of a lavish house, of international vacations and, most importantly, of an adoring family that fit the narrative of the American dream down to the last detail. And here they were so many years later; Roman married and about to have a baby and Harvey conducting a city-wide crime spree. Life was funny sometimes. Roman sighed and rubbed a small circle over his bump as he talked, "I never really got that before you, before your father."  
  
Before he had Victor, Roman had Harvey and Bruce. They had been his family even if he hadn't realized (or accepted) them as such. After they'd had their falling out...well...there wasn't much Roman remembered about that part of his life. It was like a swirling black hole inside of his mind, like a chunk of his memories had been completely destroyed. If he had to guess though, something told Roman that his inability to remember clearly was fuelled by days spent drinking himself to oblivion and doing lines of cocaine off Playgirl magazine rejects. He could divide the years up to ones spent relying on the guys and ones spent relying on Victor, never alone. He'd never been alone and now he was never going to be alone again. "Huh," Roman said softly. "Hey kid, when you get older you better not do what I'm about to. It's one thing for me to sneak out in the middle of the night, but I expect better of you."  
  
~~~  
  
Dick and Barbara had left to go on patrol a couple of hours ago. Under normal circumstances, Bruce would have joined them and Alfred could have enjoyed the silence that came from being the only occupant inside the manor but as of late Bruce had been cutting down on his hours, leaving the poor butler with less time to himself. Not that the man necessarily minded the company but...not like this...  
  
Alfred had been in the middle of dusting the front hall when he heard the familiar buzzing of the intercom. He checked his watch. That was odd. This was far too late to be any of Bruce's usual guests. The butler pressed the button to reply, "Master Wayne is not accepting any visitors at this-" The video feed kicked in a moment later and Alfred came face to face with someone he hadn't seen in a matter of years, "Master Roman."   
  
The last time Alfred had seen the heir to the Sionis fortune Roman had just been coming into his own. The little kid with baby fat and braces who trailed behind Bruce and Harvey was long gone, grown into this confident young man with an alluring grin who could break hearts with so little as a wink. The man standing on the other side of the door was neither, though Alfred could see traces of them both. "Hello, Alfred." He said into the intercom. "Can I please speak to him for a moment?"  
  
Under normal circumstances, Alfred would have listened to his young master's instructions regarding visitors but maybe this was the push Bruce needed to haul himself up off the couch and get back to work. Bruce just needed an outside perspective to see it. The butler unlocked the door and held it open long enough for Roman to step into the foyer, "Come in." Alfred stated. "He's in the parlor." Roman would still know the way.   
  
"Thank you, Alfred." So the old man was still working against Bruce whenever he was being a stubborn asshole? It was nice to know that some things never changed. Alfred went back to dusting and Roman made his way to the parlor, passing several portraits of the Wayne family and their ancestors, stopping only when he reached the doorway. From there he had a clear view in on the crumpled form that once was Bruce Wayne curled up on the couch. It wasn't hard to tell that Bruce had not been sleeping. The bags under his eyes were huge and dark, making him look more like a raccoon than a human being. His hair was a mess, so tangled and hardened by the incorrect application of hair gel that it would take hours for him to comb it all out and look presentable again. Given the smell and the various stains coating Bruce's undershirt, he hadn't changed clothes in a matter of days. The flatscreen was on and tuned in to the same report that Roman had been watching that spurred his interest in the sudden late-night visit: Two-Face scrambling down a set of stone steps carrying a bag full of diamonds under one arm, clutching a machine gun with the other and grinning from ear to ear as two men in black and white suits ran along beside him. Roman crossed his arms in front of his chest and sighed, "You look like shit."   
  
Bruce let out a low groan and massaged his forehead. "Thank you, Roman." His eyes went wide and the man did a double-take when he realized that he wasn't just imagining it and the other man was actually standing there. After the radio silence that followed their argument in the hospital, Bruce hadn't been expecting to hear from him anytime soon. "Roman! I-"   
  
His plans for playing it cool went flying out the window and suddenly Roman couldn't take it anymore. He surged forward, throwing his arms around Bruce's shoulders, mysterious odor and stains be damned, and pulled him close. Bruce went completely stiff but after the initial shock wore off Roman felt a familiar pair of arms wrap around him. "I miss him too."   
  
Bruce didn't need to ask who Roman was talking about. His ghost had been haunting Gotham for the past few months. "He hasn't been answering my calls," Bruce murmured and he was unable to disguise the way his voice cracked underneath the weight of those words. "I tried to find him in the city but his place is completely torn up!"  
  
"I saw him," Roman admitted unable to keep his own voice steady. "He kept saying we and us and saying these awful things..."  
  
"I'm less concerned about the awful things he's saying and more concerned about the fact that he's been robbing banks and jewelry stores!"   
  
"I don't like this new Harvey!" Roman exclaimed with tears forming in his eyes. "I want our annoying, stubborn, stick-in-his-ass Harvey back!" The old Harvey who used to bring them food whenever they were trying to cramp for an exam, who was there waiting with water, Tylenol, and a hypocritical lecture whenever they were hungover, and who always knew how to make them laugh whenever they were feeling at their lowest.   
  
Bruce could feel himself growing misty-eyed the more Roman talked about their friend. He really had been perfect, hadn't he? Perfect and Bruce never had the chance to tell him that. No, no that wasn't true. Bruce had plenty of chances to tell him that, he just lacked the balls to actually say it. "You were right. I should have told him sooner. I should have been there for him! I went to tell him, you know, the night that he-"  
  
"That has nothing to do with anything. You don't know how things would have gone if he had known or if you had been together." Maybe Harvey would have gotten his acid bath or maybe he wouldn't have been on the Maroni case altogether, it was impossible to tell and thinking over what might have been would just torment and drive them insane. There was no sense working themselves up over what may have been, all they could do was work with what was. "But we can try to get him back...right?"  
  
"Right." 


	42. Chapter 42

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what's the deal with this chapter? I rewatched Moulin Rouge, remembered how good of a singer Ewan McGregor is, got a picture in my head of Roman singing to the baby, and had to make it happen. So have some...idk what to call this? Bitter fluff? I don't know. Just enjoy!

Victor was stirred from a deep, comfortable sleep by the sound of a voice coming from down the hall. He groaned and forced himself up into a sitting position before turning to check his husband's side of the bed. As he had expected it was empty. Victor had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. He was seriously going to have to consider tying a bell around Roman's wrist or place a tracker inside his phone because waking up like this was going to be the death of him. Victor climbed to his feet and stumbled over to the doorway, pausing for a second to catch his bearings once he was fully awake. The voice was slightly louder now and definitely Roman's. He was singing again and this time Victor knew the song. It had been decades since the last time he'd watched Disney's Pinocchio but that song, the movie's main theme, was iconic and unmistakable. That was a weird choice for a song to get stuck in your head but earworms were unpredictable. Victor kept walking, planning on checking the kitchen first since that seemed to be the most likely place to find his husband as of late, but then he noticed that the lights were on in the nursery. "Roman?" Victor called in. The singing stopped and he took that as a sign that it was okay to poke his head in. "Sweetheart, are you alright?"

He found Roman sitting in the rocking chair next to the crib, a glass of water resting next to him on the bookshelf in place of an end table, one hand resting over his stomach with an exhausted look on his face. He did not seem surprised to see his husband in the slightest and even managed a tiny smile once Victor entered the room. "I'm fine. I just..." He didn't know how to explain it. Everything had happened so quickly, it felt like blinking his eyes. Best start at the beginning then. "I got hungry and when I sat down to eat there was this report on the news about Harvey and...so I went and talked to Bruce."

"You went to talk to Bruce alone?" Victor asked. 

"I ubered." Like Roman would be bold enough to try and drive across town in the middle of the night all by his lonesome. Even if he wanted to, the omega doubted that he'd be able to get comfortable and reach the peddles in his current condition. He would have contacted his latest driver, thrown together some fib about needing Bruce's opinion on some last-minute deal, but the longer he stuck around the apartment the greater the chances were of Victor waking up and discovering his plans. Like fuck would he be okay with Roman, his husband, future father of his child, getting up in the pitch dark to drive to the city's most infamous playboy's house! Normally Roman would get a kick out of the other man's possessiveness but not right now. He simply wasn't in the mood for it. "I had to talk to someone who understands what I'm feeling right now."

"I understand." Was Victor's response. He knelt down next to the rocking chair and gently took hold of his husband's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Roman, if there's one person who understands what you're feeling right now it's me."

"You barely knew him, Victor."

"No." But Victor had lost people too. Victor had lost people he had cared about, had once loved, who he still loved, and it had broken him just like Harvey broke Roman. The only difference was Roman had to live with his ghost, had to face that phantom whenever he turned on the news, looked at a newspaper, or tried to conduct business with his fellow rogues, but Victor had nothing. No matter where he looked there was nothing left in this world to remind him that the people he had lost had once been there, had been real, other than his memories and the mere fact that he was alive. Victor was the only piece of tangible evidence that there had once been a family in Gotham who had tried to make a go out of normalcy in this fucked up city and had come really fucking close. If Roman needed to mourn he had people to turn to, sentimental trinkets that he could hold close to his heart, but Victor had nothing. He had been forced to endure alone. There was one other thing that Roman had right now that his husband had not been granted the privilege of when his world had shifted beneath his feet: hope. There was still a chance that they could get Harvey back. So no, their situations were not the same, but if anyone was to understand where Roman was coming from it was his husband. "But I know you. And I know that you're in pain right now. And that I'm going to do whatever it takes to make that pain stop."

Despite the situation they were in, Roman smirked and squeezed Victor's hand back, "Sap."

"Mmm," Victor had the sneaking suspicion that if they continued down this path the evening was going to end with more than a little good-natured ribbing on his husband's part. He decided to change the subject and laid his head on Roman's lap. "I could listen to you sing for hours. I still don't understand why you don't go on stage at the club."

"I don't perform in front of people. Haven't since high school." Those years hadn't been all partying and sticking it to daddy. Roman had studied, had gotten decent enough grades that he could have gone to college if his parents had been willing to foot the bill, and had gotten involved with a couple of extracurriculars that would have looked nice on an application. As it turned out old mom and dad found his involvement with the school choir and theater group useful when it was just something to make him look good to potential universities, not when he was trying to secure an interview with the admissions board at Julliard. Low and behold Roman Sionis never made it to that interview and came home one evening, not long after he finished at the academy, to find all of his songbooks and microphones missing. But that had been so long ago now. "Do you really think that I could?" That was a dumb question. Of course, he could! It was his fucking club! It was a matter of will power. "Maybe when the baby gets a little older, I could see about it."

Victor had been with Roman long enough to know what maybe meant. He'd be watching his husband up on stage someday in the not-too-distant future and may God help any poor soul who wandered into The Black Mask Club that night and dared not to applaud once he finished. "You may have to learn some new songs. I don't think the usual crowd will appreciate the lullabies and sad Disney songs." Stoned college kids weren't going to want to vibe to that. 


	43. Chapter 43

As part of their day to day operations St. Bernadette offered regular tours to pregnant couples considering the facility as a possible location for the birth of their babies. The upkeep of the tours wasn't much; someone would call and ask about getting a look around and whoever was working in reception would get them registered for the group being shown around that day so they could get clumped together into one major group, rather than having small tours moving around at all hours. It may not have been the most convenient for the parents who had to adjust their schedules to attend but it was the easiest for staff who didn't want to be tripping over anyone who wandered off when there was an emergency that demanded their attention. It was also beneficial whenever one of their donors suddenly found themselves expecting as it gave hospital staff time to get things looking their best for their visit. It cost money to keep a private hospital operating in Gotham and every little bit helped. So, when someone called asking if space would be available on Saturday's tour for a member of the legendary Sionis' family, St. Bernadette's staff members quickly sprung into action. The hallways were scrubbed as clean as they could possibly get when they were still being used, the hospital's most impressive specialists were instructed to prepare to be interviewed during Saturday's tour, and one of the most chipper and outgoing receptionists was handed the task of leading it. 

Sure enough, Saturday morning rolls around and the Gotham socialite was there waiting in the crowd to begin, accompanied by a shorter man covered in scars and staring daggers at anyone who grew bold enough to look their way. The receptionist made the decision on sight to leave him be and try not to make any prolonged eye contact with Roman, just treat the group like she would any other. Though she couldn't explain it, afterward the woman felt like this may have saved her life. "-So if you just come this way we'll be passing by the nursery and we can introduce you to one of the perinatologists we have on staff."

"The fuck is a perinatologist?" Victor Zsasz, a man whose abilities to kill were regarded as poetic and downright artistic at times but were not reflected in his linguistic capabilities, asked. The man standing with his wife behind Victor snorted a laugh at that and the assassin spun around to growl at them both, "Got a problem buddy?"

The woman let out an alarmed squeal and pulled her husband back in line. Victor smirked triumphantly but his husband, on the other hand, was less than impressed. "Down boy," Roman said with an eye-roll. "They're a doctor, love."

"Why can't they just say doctor then?" Victor didn't get it. Yeah, he knew about specializations and that getting someone who had spent years studying cardiology probably wouldn't be as useful in the delivery room as an OBGYN, but a doctor was a doctor, wasn't it? Better than having one of the bartenders try and assist. Victor leaned in closer to his husband, allowing the other couple to pass by him, and asked, "Think this is going to be the one who delivers ours?" It couldn't hurt to have a word with the good doctor beforehand; just to make sure that everybody was on the same page. 

"Possibly," Roman replied with a shrug. "Technically I still am considered high risk." You'd think for his connection to organized crime and not his age but what did he know? 

The tour continued on down a wide corridor passing a couple of nurses in scrubs coming and going as they carried out their usual duties. At one point the group passed by a large glass window. Out of the corner of his eye, Roman saw movement and came to stop for a better look. He was damn grateful that he did and hooked onto his husband's arm as Victor walked past him. "Hey Victor, look!" 

The window provided a look in on the hospital's nursery where about ten newborns were currently being tended to by two young nurses, one who was in the process of feeding a tiny baby with little black curls swaddled in a pale pink blanket while her coworker soothed another in a rocking chair in the corner of the room. The others were occupying a row of incubators, some fussing as they impatiently waited for their turn with the women assigned to their care, others sleeping blissfully unaware of their surroundings. Even a hardened killer like Victor Zsasz had to admit that they were cute. "They're so little." He mused, his gaze landing on the baby girl currently being fed. "Think that ours is going to have hair like that?" 

"Maybe. I have been having a bit of heartburn throughout this. Supposedly that's linked to babies having hair."

"Really?" That sounded fucking weird but then again Victor's knowledge on this kind of thing was extremely limited. He'd take Roman's word for it. "Think it'll be brown or black?" One thing was for certain, it definitely wasn't going to be blond, otherwise, they were going to need to get into contact with the company that manufactured the bleach Victor used on his hair and have a stern talk with them about the product they produced. An image popped into Victor's mind of his husband at a very young age and he grinned, "Or maybe they'll have red-"

"Ugh." Roman cut him off with a groan. "Do not." All he could say in regards to that little remark was that the gang leader was immensely happy that his hair darkened with age. Something about seeing a little kid with firey red hair just drove the old ladies wild and Roman did not wish all of those cheek-pinches and bone-crushing hugs on anyone, let alone his child. They stood there for a few minutes just watching the babies wriggling around inside their incubators before Roman spoke up again with a request, "Victor I'm going to need you to do something for me."

"Okay. Who do you want me to kill?" He hoped it was that asshole from the tour. That fucker needed to get taken down a peg!

"It's not a murder, love." Though Roman could see where he was coming from. The majority of the tasks he assigned to his husband had something to do with Victor's particular set of skills. It may not have involved killing, but what he was about to say next was of great importance and Roman had been thinking about how to approach the subject with the other man for some time now. The clock was running out and they needed to be on the same page before the moment came. "When the time comes, I plan on taking whatever drugs they can give me to help with the pain."

"Understandable. You never had much of a tolerance." Victor had once seen the gang leader cry for ten minutes after stubbing his toe against the coffee table, a story that he had been sworn to secrecy to protect. 

"I'm going to ignore that for now. My point is that I won't be in much of a state to handle anything. I'm going to be completely out of it! So I need you to help me out, keep an eye on everything, and make sure that everything goes according to plan."

"Why wouldn't they?" Victor asked. That was why they were here instead of making plans to go to Gotham General or one of the other dozens of hospitals and clinics inside the city, wasn't it? Why they were paying the extra to try and have their baby in a private hospital?

"There's a hundred of different things that could go wrong. Breech, macrosomia, placental abruption-"

Victor felt his stomach twist into a knot and the color drained from his face, "Please stop."

"-The baby could get tangled up in the umbilical cord, or it could prolapse, or they could get stuck-"

"Roman!" The assassin shouted and that was enough to snap Roman out of whatever trance he had caught himself in. He stopped talking and Victor took this as an opportunity to catch his breath and try to get his stomach to stop aching. Once the butterflies were gone and Victor felt like he could stand up properly without vomiting, he added, "I'm going to take your kobo away from you." That damn parenting book that Roman had been scanning through! When he had first mentioned reading it to his husband, Victor had been under the impression that it would just be talking about what to expect with the baby, how to soothe them when they were crying and at what age should they start trying to feed them solid food, that kind of crap, not a hundred and one reasons labor could go wrong! "I get it. You made your point. It's really difficult and stressful and I can't blame you for wanting to be out for it."

"Exactly." Roman replied. "And so I'm going to need you to look after things while I'm out." 

"Isn't that the doctor's job?" Or the perinatologist or whatever the fuck they were called?

The gang leader's response was short and sweet. "I don't trust them." He stated firmly. Neither of them did. It was one of the things they had in common though their reasons for a lack of trust in medical professionals had never been shared between the couple. Not before now. Roman turned and in a soft voice asked, "Victor?"

"Yes Boss?"

"...If something goes wrong, the baby is the priority. Make sure that they know that." 

Victor felt his mouth go dry and the words leave him but his husband was looking at him, waiting for that confirmation, so he nodded until he found his voice again. "Okay." He got out. After that one, simple word, the rest came flooding back. "But nothing is going to go wrong. These are the best doctors in Gotham, on the east coast, they are trained to handle these things and rise to the occasion when something arises." 

Roman didn't say a thing, just side-stepped closer to Victor and leaned against him. Victor took the hint and draped an arm around his husband's shoulders. He pressed a kiss to Roman's forehead and in a gentle voice asked, "Baby?"

The gang leader took a deep breath, "When I was born I was dropped."

"What?"

"Like, immediately after I was born one of the doctor dropped me on my seconds old head. I didn't appear to have any damage and the incident was never reported." Because God forbid Richard and Lorraine ever appear as anything less than the spiffy socialites they needed to be for the press. If someone found out about the accident involving their newborn, well, people could talk and get the impression that they were _bad parents_! The irony had not been lost on Roman. "My parents told me about it when I was a kid like it was some funny, embarrassing kid story but I-" Thinking about it now still gave him the chills and Roman involuntarily shivered. "I was literally in the most vulnerable state possible! There was nothing I could do to protect myself, I was completely in his hands, his so-called professional hands, and he just-"

"That asshole!" Victor growled already devising a hundred different ways that he could make that bastard of a doctor pay! "Do you know what his name was?! If he still has a practice!?"

"It was over thirty years ago Victor." If the man hadn't retired by now, he was on his way out. It would only be a matter of a couple of hours of sleuthing (at the very most) to catch the name of the doctor responsible but the thought of actually looking him up, of making him answer to his crimes, had no appeal to Roman. If anyone asked he would chop it up to being a waste of time for someone who could no longer cause him harm. The reality was Roman didn't want to know his name, didn't want to see his face. "I'll settle for you making sure that our child's first human contact does not end with them on the floor."

"I can do that," Victor assured him with a smile and pressed another kiss to Roman's cheek. "Your loyal guard dog is at your service."

It was hard to wallow in self-pity when his husband was so attentive. Victor managed to get a smile out of Roman and they were able to deter their attention away from the nursey long enough to recognize that they had fallen behind on the tour. The couple began to walk, hoping that they would round a corner and bump into the rest of the group when all of a sudden Roman stopped completely. "Hey Victor." He said catching the other man's attention. "Hold up a minute."

"What's up?"

Roman jerked his thumb towards a door they had passed. "Closet." 

"So?"

"Come on, you were a big star back in high school! You had to have spent some time getting busy in the closet!" 

God help Victor Zsasz was not a smart man. He stared at his husband for what had to have been minutes, just trying to connect the dots, before Roman had enough and started to tug him towards the closet. He'd figure it out eventually. 


	44. Chapter 44

All and all the tour of St. Bernadette's was a smashing success- until one of the janitors went to grab a mob from the maternity ward corridor and stumbled upon the guest of honor making out with his husband. Needless to say Roman and Victor did not finish the tour and were promptly escorted from the building by a security guard who seemed to be getting a good kick out of the entire thing. Suddenly free for the rest of the afternoon, the happy couple decided to go for a quick walk around downtown before they had to return home and prep the club for the night. They decided to walk the length of officer's square and circle back to where they'd parked the car, get the most that they could out of these final days of summer before fall came creeping in. Victor kept one of his arms wrapped around his husband's shoulders as they walked, just in case anyone got any ideas or thought they could get away with trying to touch Roman or his stomach. Today was already a seemingly perfect day and he wouldn't blink twice about kicking the shit out of anyone who tried to ruin it. "What do you think the chances are they'll actually let us back in?"

"Considering that there's an entire wing named after my grandfather? Pretty fucking high if they ever want to receive the yearly donations Janus Corp makes." If he was going to be saddled with the Sionis name as a key part of his identity for all of eternity, Roman may as well enjoy the perks that came with it. 

"It uh, it's not the place where you-"

"No." Roman answered him. "I actually wasn't born in Gotham. For whatever reason, my parents thought that nine months into a pregnancy was an appropriate time to go to Tampa." Whatever drew them to that fucking city of all places was a complete and utter mystery to him. It wasn't like they would enjoy any of the amusement parks or tourist attractions located there, even if his mother was not heavily pregnant. 

"Florida?" Victor asked and Roman nodded in confirmation, "That explains so much."

Roman rolled his eyes and shoved him lightly, "Shut up."

Victor just laughed and continued walking, "Are you hungry?"

"I'm in a constant state of hunger. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, it's not really your style but if you really did like chili dogs I know a place where you can get one near here." He just had to leave out the part where they were purchased from a cart, not an actual restaurant, and Roman would be satisfied. Victor would deal with the fallout when they were actually standing in line. 

At this point as long as he was getting some sort of food into him Roman was not going to complain (except, you know, on the way home). He grinned and relaxed into Victor's side, "Lead the way."

Officer's square wasn't like Robinson Park in the sense that it did not have playground equipment or much set up to entertain children though it was still a beautiful location in the heart of Gotham, crowded with trees, benches, and even a fountain in the center of the square that had to have about ten grand in coins sitting at the bottom from all the people passing by who thought it would be a cute idea to try and make a wish. Even without all the stuff set up to keep the little kids happy, officer's square was still a popular spot for children and some teens to hang out in after school. As Roman and Victor walked along the square's cobblestone path they spotted a couple of kids who had to have been around six or seven years old attempting to climb one of the trees at the edge of the fence. Victor managed a small smile but didn't say anything. Roman, on the other hand, practically cooed, "Aww! They're adorable!"

Victor chuckled and leaned in to whisper in his husband's ear, "Softy."

"I'm not going to say shut up again," Roman warned him but Victor could tell from his tone that he didn't mean it. "I think it's the hormones. With the baby on the way, suddenly children are cute. We're just going to have to learn to live with that."

"There are worse things." Victor agreed. They made it to the other end of the square and as they were about to cross the street a familiar sound blasted off, completely disrupting the quiet and otherwise peaceful scene around them. Victor's arm around Roman's shoulders strengthened but neither man made any effort to turn heel or run to the rolls. Bank robberies in Gotham had become like car accidents; they were tragic but they usually attracted a decent amount of spectators. The key was to just stand off to the side out the immediate line of fire and run for it if it looked like whoever was pulling it off was about to come out, guns blazing. "Would you look at that?"

"Yeah, who do you think it is?" Harley and Ivy didn't have anything on the books as far as Roman knew, and neither did Bane of Jonathan. If Eddie was going to attempt a robbery he would have at least called in for back up and this wasn't Cobbleplot's usual scene. Perhaps a new guy had sprung up overnight? Or it could have been someone outside of the alliance? The doors to the bank swung open and three men came rushing out: two carrying machine guns while their boss carried the spoils from their heist. Even to someone new to the Gotham scene, the trio was easily identifiable in their black & white, split down the middle suits. 

Sensing an upcoming storm Victor tried to gently guide his husband back into the square but his feet may as well be rooted into the ground, "Maybe we should go-"

"Victor," Roman said in a low, guttural growl that could have made the grim reaper shiver. "Go get the car." 

"Boss?" 

"GO. GET. THE. CAR!" 

That was enough for Victor. He slid his arm from around his husband's shoulders and took off jogging in the direction of the rolls-royce. Free from Victor's clutches and feeling searing heat begin to spread throughout him, Roman's eyes locked on the shell of his former friend. With his jaw clenched the gang leader set off, storming across the street and straight towards the man formerly known as Harvey Dent. He didn't see it coming. Two-Face was grinning from ear to ear (well, from ear to hole in the side of his head where his ear used to be), proudly hoisting the sack of stolen cash above his head, 

"Twenty grand easy boys!" He announced, earning himself a round of cheers and whistles from his two goons. They kept running and made it to the bottom of the stairs before noticing the heavily pregnant omega waiting for them with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a scowl on his otherwise handsome face. Two-Face tilted his head to the side, his face twisting up in confusion. "Roman...?" He asked. Without saying another word Roman strode forward, grabbed Two-Face by his good ear causing him to drop the bag of cash, and started dragging him down the street. "ROMAN!?" 

"You're coming with me!" The man question barked. 

"Roman!" For a very brief moment, Two-Face considered shoving the omega off of him and bolting with the loot but, even now, he didn't want to risk causing any harm to him or the baby so those plans were quickly abandoned in favor of utilizing Harvey's background in law and reasoning with the other man, "Roman, you're embarrassing us in front of our goons-!"

Roman shot him a look that said _really_ but kept walking. They met Victor in the rolls who pulled over and, after releasing Two-Face's ear, Roman opened the rear door. "Get in the car, Havey."

Gotham's newest criminal let out an exasperated sigh and tenderly rubbed his now throbbing appendage. "Two-Face-" He tried to correct the other man for what had to have been the fiftieth time. If looks could kill, both sides of the man formerly known as Harvey Dent would have been absolutely obliterated. Roman's grip on the car door tightened, his knuckles going white, and he turned to shoot Two-Face a menacing glare capable of reducing even the most hardened criminal to a twitching, sobbing mess,

" ** _I SAID GET IN THE FUCKING CAR HARVEY!_** " Two-Face complied without a word. He took his seat, tried not to flinch when Roman slammed the door shut behind him, and heaved a sigh as they waited for Roman to get in. The gang leader stomped around to the other side, yanked the door open, and climbed in. Two-Face resorted to directing his gaze out the window to avoid having to stare into the searing hellfire in Roman's eyes as he scowled at him. "Drive Victor."

"Where are we going?" Victor asked. Roman answered him by delivering a sharp kick to the back of Victor's seat. If it had been any other person sitting behind the wheel they may have flinched but the assassin didn't even blink. "How about you just give me directions on the way instead?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the Two-Bats subplot is coming to a close soon after chapters of angst and Roman trying to understand his relationship with some of his old friends. That'll be wrapped up in the next chapter, with a bit of an update near the end. I have been waiting to write Roman dragging Harvey by the ear since Two-Face first came on the scene and I have to admit that it was a blast! 
> 
> Only a couple more chapters left. As of right now, it's around early September in this chapter so that should give some hints as to what is going to be coming up right after we finish up with Harvey and Bruce. 
> 
> Thanks for reading guys and I hope you're staying safe out there!


	45. Chapter 45

Bruce Wayne hadn't been seen in public for some time. For the sake of appearances, and to make sure that no one came snooping around to see if the man had died, he kept regular updates on his twitter and Facebook accounts, regularly dropping hints that the reason for his extended absence was due to a broken leg he'd obtained during a recent ski trip to Switzerland, and that had been enough for the city to leave him be. Coincidentally Batman, while appearing every now and then, had been popping up less and less over the city. Despite these crime levels had remained consistent thanks to the increased presence of Batgirl and Robin. Dick and Barbara had been trying to give their companion a bit of room to maneuver through his issues but they had been firm in ensuring that he was out on patrols at least once a week, just so Gotham's underworld didn't get the idea that the Batman had been defeated. Every other day of the week they were content to let Bruce wallow in self-pity. And wallow he did. If it weren't for Alfred's constant hovering Bruce would have long forgotten to eat and shower on a regular basis. Sleep was the one thing that Bruce was not having any problem remembering to do on his own though he had taken to sleeping at completely random times throughout the day. This particular day Bruce was curled up on the sofa in the parlor, a blanket haphazardly covering his torso, when the french doors to the room were flung open, yanking Bruce from his slumber. "What the hell?!" He shouted, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Alfred-!?"

The man in question stood there smiling at him. That damned knowing smile of his... "Good morning, Sir!" The butler greeted him. Bruce turned and looked at the clock hanging on the nearby wall. It was 2:17 in the afternoon. "You have some visitors." 

"Alfred, I said that I wasn't-" 

Alfred took a step to the side so that his master could see the group assembled behind him. There, standing in the middle of the hallway, was the criminal known as Two-Face standing between Victor Zsasz and Roman Sionis. Two-Face had his head down, his eyes fixed on the floor, looking more like a child about to be scolded for sneaking cookies than a master criminal who had been pulling off heists all across the city. Victor looked apathetic and in his defense he probably was. He was a loyal man, so devoted to his husband/employer that he would do whatever was asked of him, including getting waist-deep in whatever the hell kind of drama you could call this mess. Roman, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear like the cat that ate the canary. "Hey Bruce! Look who I found!"

When they had last spoken Bruce and Roman had talked about their fallen friend, about their hopes that he could recover and the possibility of finding a way to help him. This was not what Bruce had in mind when he pictured aiding Harvey's recovery. In fact, he was pretty sure that this could be considered kidnapping and was therefore illegal. Sensing the upcoming storm, Alfred started to slowly back away to give the party their privacy. "I think I will go make tea." 

"Can I come with you?" Victor asked. 

Victor Zsasz and Alfred Pennyworth had never met before he showed up on the front steps of Wayne manor a couple of minutes ago with his husband and a wanted criminal in tow. Despite them being absolute strangers, the butler turned to him and nodded, "Yes." 

They left without another word which gave Bruce a good idea of Victor's involvement in this felony. He had been nothing but a getaway driver. Considering some of the shit Victor had done over the years, going from a highly sought after hitman to a driver was quite the demotion. Then again when you were fucking the boss...Once Alfred and Victor were gone Roman clapped his hands together, "Well boys, let's sit down and chat, shall we?"

Bruce sighed, "Roman, this is incredibly low-"

"Thank you, Bruce." The omega replied, "Harvey, would you join us please?"

"Our name is Two-Face." The man repeated but Roman shot him a look that had him ducking his head and rubbing his ear. Bruce hadn't noticed it when they first arrived but for some reason, Two-Face's ear was bright red and sore looking. Something told Bruce that he had missed something but he decided that it wasn't important at the moment. The former district attorney took a seat on the couch and folded his hands in his lap, "We'll sit though."

"Good boy." Roman said and patted Harvey's shoulder before taking a seat next to him. "Consider this your intervention."

"We don't have to stay here-"

"Harvey, do you really want to try and fight someone who is eight months pregnant?" Roman asked. Harvey didn't respond. He may have been a bank robber, may have stolen some diamonds from the local jewelry stores, may have even been a murderer even, but he wasn't a monster and everyone in the room knew it. Satisfied with that answer, Roman relaxed back into his seat. "Thought so. Look, This isn't you Harvey. I don't know what the fuck this is, but it's not you."

"You don't know me."

"You're kidding me right? Harvey, I know you. I know you better than anyone else with the only exception being Bruce!" At the mention of his name the billionaire winced. Yeah, at one point in time he had known Harvey quite well and yet that had not been enough to save him. Roman wasn't done yet though, "All you've ever wanted to do is help people. You've known that since you were five! How is this helping anybody?"

"People aren't worth it." The man in question growled. 

"You don't believe that." Roman replied. "Harv, you still pay for your father to stay in a quality retirement community instead of leaving him to rot for all that he did to you! That's not the sign of someone who has given up on humanity. All you ever wanted to do was help other people but now you need help. Please Harvey, let us give it to you."

"It's too far gone for me now." 

This wasn't working. If they kept going down this path all they were going to do was argue in circles around each other. Something needed to change. "Roman?" Bruce asked. "Can you go check on Victor and Alfred? Make sure that they're getting on okay." Oh to be a fly on the wall to whatever conversations they were having in the kitchen...

Roman seemed to get the hint. "Okay." He said and pushed himself back up onto his feet. As he passed Bruce on his way out the door he shot him a look. _Don't screw this up_ , it said, clearer than any sentence or remark. Neither of them knew if they would ever get another shot at this. Roman left and Bruce's gaze landed back on the shell of the man who had once been his closest, dearest friend, and his heart ached at the sight of him. Nobody deserved this, least of all Gotham's white knight. 

"Harvey..."

The former district attorney shook his head, "There isn't a going back from this." he murmured. "You don't understand Bruce, it's like I'm being torn completely in two!"

"We can find someone to help put you back together." Bruce tried to reason with him. Sure, the exact situation wasn't something that many people would have had to face before, in fact it was probably a first, but that didn't mean it was hopeless. Someone had to know what to do, exactly how they could make Harvey feel better, feel like himself again. "A good therapist, a psychiatrist, whatever you need we can help you-"

"I killed somebody, Bruce." Harvey said bluntly before Bruce even had the chance to finish that thought. "I killed Sal Maroni! He begged for me to let him go, for me to show him mercy, but I still shot him!" Still got him on his knees, still put a barrel between his eyes, still dumped his body in Gotham harbor. "It didn't even feel good..."

"That's...I'm sorry that happened Harvey."

"You're sorry? Bruce, I am a murderer! How can you even look at me right now! My face is one thing but the fact that I took a life!"

"Your face has nothing to do with it. What happened to Maroni...you weren't well when you did that, you're still not well! If you come clean, no one is going to hold you responsible for this-"

"But I am-"

"No. No, you're not." Any lawyer with half a brain could get a verdict of not criminally responsible given the circumstances plaguing Harvey's life these last few months. The fact that he had killed a mobster with a long history of violence in one of the most crime-ridden cities in the world didn't hurt the matter. If he had been wearing a mask and a cape, he may have been hailed as a new breed of hero. "Here's what's going to happen. You're going to spend the night here, I'll ask Roman if he can stay with you too, and then after breakfast tomorrow we're going to take you straight to New York Presbyterian for admissions. I'll get into contact with the DA's office and Gotham PD, explain the situation to them, and make the arrangements myself. I'll stay with you in New York if I have to but you are going to receive that treatment." 

Harvey shook his head, "I can't afford that-"

"I can," Bruce interjected. "This isn't negotiable Harvey." 

"Why are you doing this?" The former DA asked. "Why are either of you doing this for me?"

Why were either of them doing this? Bruce tried to think of a way to fully express how he felt, how Roman felt, but the words seemed to be failing him. Nothing seemed to fit right so he decided to try and use an example. One, in particular, sprung to mind, "Do you remember the summer we spent at Camp Cayuga?" 

"Yeah?" Harvey answered, cocking an eyebrow. The summer after Bruce's parents died the guidance counselor at the academy thought it may be a good idea for him to get out of the city, meet some new kids, and reconnect with nature. Alfred, much to Bruce's horror, ended up agreeing with her and when it became all too clear to him that the camping thing was going to happen one way or another Bruce set about convincing his friends to join him. Harvey had been able to sell his father on the idea by pointing out that attending a sleepaway camp would translate into him being out of the house for nearly three months. That summer had been the only time the three boys had gone camping and it had been more than enough to fuel a deep-seated hatred for the great outdoors that would follow them into adulthood. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Despite everything, Bruce snorted a laugh at that. It really had been Hell on Earth dealing between the mosquitos, the long hikes, the crappy food, and regular summer thunderstorms, but it left them with plenty of stories to tell. Stories like the following one: "Roman scrapped his knee when we went hiking and you carried him back to the first aid cabin, patched him up yourself, even kissed his forehead and found him some ice cream to stop him from crying." Who the fuck knew where the counselors had gone, it always seemed like they were disappearing whenever one of the campers needed them. With no one else around Harvey rose to the occasion. "Our first night there I couldn't sleep because I had never been away from my parents for that long so you climbed into my bunk and snuggled with me until I fell asleep. You took care of us that summer and you never stopped. Even when you weren't talking to us." 

That struck a nerve. Harvey flinched and ducked his head, suddenly fascinated with his boots but Bruce was far from done yet. He leaned forward and placed his hand on Harvey's shoulder, "Roman doesn't know how many times someone brought forward pressing charges against The Black Mask Club, does he? How many times you were approached about going forward, only for you to reject on a lack of evidence. But I do." Every time some clubgoer had come forward and slapped some story about how Roman or one of his employees had threatened them, intimidated them, degraded them, onto Harvey's desk he had taken the time to tell Bruce about every single one of them. Bruce hadn't been keeping count but he was willing to guess that it would have been around twenty people at this point. Twenty potential lawsuits that Roman never caught wind of all because a man he hadn't spoken to in years still felt the need to protect the guy he had once considered his brother. "You took care of us, Harvey. Now please let us take care of you."

Harvey studied the other man, looked at him like he could read his soul, and for a moment Bruce thought that Harvey may try and make a break for it. To his surprise Harvey instead doubled over, placing his head in his hands and ran his hand through his hair. When he spoke the edge that had been plaguing his voice for the last couple of months was gone. "I guess I really fucked things up, huh?" He asked, his voice cracking under the weight of his words. Bruce got up and crossed the distance separating them, taking the seat next to Harvey, and placed his hands on Harvey's shoulders to gently guide him into an embrace. 

"You didn't. Maroni did." Bruce assured him. He noticed some tears beginning to build in the corners of Harvey's eyes and moved to wipe them away but the second his hand got anywhere near Harvey's face the other man tilted his head to the side. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Bruce tried to cup Harvey's face and get him to turn his head back but he just turned away. "You keep trying to hide your face." Bruce stated. Oh. _Oh!_ Bruce reached over and cupped Harvey's face with both hands but he didn't try to force his friend to look at him, no matter how badly he wanted him to. "Harvey, please look at me."

With a soft sigh of defeat Harvey turned back and locked eyes with the other man. Bruce had always loved Harvey's eyes, even before his feelings towards the guy had taken on a more romantic notion and were strictly platonic. Those sweet, soft, sky blue eyes could make anyone feel like everything was going to be okay just by glancing into them for a few seconds. There was only one now, but even so there was still a softness that lingered in both of them. Bruce must have been caught up in them because Harvey got this weird and confused look on his face. "Bruce..." He said softly and that was enough. Bruce leaned forward and fulfilled the dream that he had been thinking about since he was a teenager by capturing Harvey's lips in a kiss. When he felt a pair of hands slinking around him, running through his hair, Bruce couldn't help but wonder what had taken them so long. 


	46. Chapter 46

Eddie took a nice long sip of the fruity that Roman had allowed him to mix and leaned against the bar, smirking as he watched the other two men in the club walk around with cheesy little black and orange paper decorations and sticky-tack, stopping only when they noticed a spot of bare wall that could use a dash of holiday color. He polished off the last of his watermelon sparkler before daring to ask the question that any avid holiday fan dreaded, "Don't you think it's a little early to be decorating for Halloween?"

Both Roman and Jonathan turned to glare at their companion lingering behind the bar and in perfect, unrehearsed unison, told him, "No." before returning to their work. That was the one thing about Edward Nygma being in the alliance that no one could really understand; how he kept getting invited back to these events when all he ever did was sit back, complain, mock, and help himself to whatever food and drinks were available. Everyone had it in their minds that they were going to leave Eddie off the guest list but then he still ended up being called. Like today for example when Roman had gotten it into his mind that he needed to start getting ready for Halloween and called for some reinforcements. Jonathan had been an obvious choice, Bane came with Jonathan, Harley & Ivy had been out of town supervising a school trip for Cass, and somehow in all of the confusion Edward had been notified and Roman had attempted to pacify him with free booze. It wasn't working. "The second September rolls around it's fair game for black and orange. I'm actually showing restraint for holding off for so long."

"Come on." Eddie said with an eye-roll. Sensing that he wouldn't be getting anywhere with Roman, Eddie turned his attention to the king of Halloween himself. "Jonny-boy! Don't you think having all this crap up two weeks before the big day, your big day, kind of cheapens it?"

Jonathan pulled a little plastic mold of a cartoon bat on a string out from the cardboard box of decorations Roman had pulled from storage and held it up in front of his face. "Boo." He said in his most monotone voice. "Where do you want the bats, Roman?"

"How about in the garbage?" Roman asked in turn. "I know they're a traditional Halloween symbol but it's bad enough that there's going to be so many people strutting around dressed like that asshole. I don't need any more reminders of his existence." How many drunk douchebags in cheap latex batman costumes they purchased at Party City would be causing mayhem in The Black Mask Club and in Gotham at large come Halloween night. Every year it seemed like some college fratboy dressed up, forget he wasn't the real caped crusader and got his ass handed to him by some big guy like Killer Croc. "We'll use more pumpkins to replace them."

"So not bats and no cats. Just pumpkins." Edward summarized. It seemed kind of cheap for his tastes, not to mention that Ivy would lose her shit once she saw what they had done to so many helpless gourds. "Lame." 

Sensing that Riddler wasn't going to let this go Roman decided to pull out the big guns and nip his complaining in the bud as quickly as possible, "Eddie, I'll get Bane to yeet you off the roof again." He warned him. But wait...where was the big guy? Why wasn't he there helping them place the decorations up in higher places and carrying the old, soggy box around behind them. "...Where's Bane?"

Jonathan took a break from attempting to hang a string of little cut out pumpkin designs on the wall to shoot him a funny look. "He went to get more supplies with Victor." He informed the other omega. "Remember?"

Roman paused for a second and tried to think back to what they had happened right when the others arrived. He remembered taking the lift down with his husband and Victor getting the box out of storage for him...Eddie being his usual annoying self so being ever the host Roman instructed him to go make a drink...they tried to put up these fake cob webs and spiders but they just wouldn't stick...so Victor offered to go down the street and see if they could get a glue-gun or something to help them stay up. Literally less than twenty minutes ago. "Oh yeah..." Roman mumbled, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. 

From his safe space behind the bar, Edward called out, "You know, this late into pregnancy your IQ is down by about-"

"Shut up Eddie!" Roman snapped and was more than ready to stomp over and slap some sense into the other man when a sharp pain spread through his lower abdomen causing Roman to wince and place one of his hands over his stomach as he tried to compose himself, "Ugh..."

"Are you okay?" Jon asked, his attention briefly diverted from the string of paper pumpkins he had been trying to pin above one of Roman's favorite sculptures. 

"I'm fine. It's just a cramp. I get them now." Roman explained, waving the pain off completely. Sure enough, the pain started to fade away and the gang leader went back to work as if nothing had just happened. His book had prepared him for this, had warned him that this close to his due date he was going to get a lot more uncomfortable than he had been the past few months and that he was going to get the strongest desire to just lay down and nest. As tempting as crawling straight into bed and remaining there for the rest of his life was, Roman Sionis was a businessman and he had things to do. His kid was just going to have to accommodate and, hopefully, decide not to put him through any of that Braxton Hicks contraction bullshit. If the baby tried to make him go through that, they were going to be born grounded. "Because morning sickness, mood swings, and eating everything in sight wasn't fun enough."

Jonathan didn't seem that convinced but decided to let it slide in favor of setting up a glass statute of a ghost over on the bar. Eddie, having abandoned his drink-making in favor of fixing himself something quick to eat with whatever was left behind the bar, stayed out of the scarecrow's way as he spotted the new drink menu off to the side. "Are these the specialty drinks?" he asked. "They look so good! The Professor's Poisoned Apple looks good...served with dry ice and in a beaker? Fuck! I love it! Witch's Brew, Black Magic Martini, Bloody Sangria, Halloween pumpkin punch-!"

Roman couldn't help but chuckle at Jon's enthusiasm. He made his way over to the bar, joining the other two men in leaning against it, and pointed to a picture of one of the drinks; the poisoned apple. "I'll give you the recipe for them later." Maybe, if he could actually remember to make the change, Roman would have the name of the drink corrected to honor the king of Halloween. Seeing as no one could figure out when the fuck Jonathan's birthday was, they had taken to celebrating Halloween with him as his day of recognition and old Jonny boy was sure to get a kick out of it. Another wave of pain seized Roman and he doubled over, grabbing onto the side of the bar to keep himself from just collapsing due to the pain. "Fuck...!"

Roman felt a gentle tap on his shoulder and he looked up to see Eddie standing across from him looking down at him with concern, "Hey." he said and shoved the connection he'd assembled forward. "Eat this."

"What?" 

Edward did not relent. "Trust me." 

It was hard to tell but from the look of it Eddie's creation seemed to be some sort of cracker sandwich. Small, salty, hardly satisfying, but it was food, it was edible, and it was easy to tell that Edward was not going to give up, so Roman downed his pride (for what had to be the first time in years) and popped the entire thing into his mouth to get it over with. As he had suspected the sandwich tasted overly salty but wasn't the worst tasting thing the omega had ever had in his mouth. Eddie watched him chew and swallow so the first thing that Roman did when his mouth was now free was spit out an insult in his direction, "Fucking weirdo." he barked, earning himself a little giggle from Jon. Just as it had before the pain quickly faded and Roman immediately went back to work. "I want to get some pumpkins, real ones, and set them up over here. I'd invite the girls to come over and carve them but I think Ivy would lose her shit."

"Probably." Jonathan agreed. "We can do them later ourselves."

"I don't know if I want to get up to my elbows in pumpkin innards. That sounds really messy. How about we just let you and Bane go to town?" Being a gigantic child, Roman could see the big guy happily slicing little square teeth and triangle eyes into the gourd and placing some tiny candles inside for added effect and, if it were up to Jon, pumpkin carving would have been a year-long thing. That is assuming Ivy didn't beat the shit out of him for trying to interfere and play God with nature. While he was busy giggling over the mental picture of the Scarecrow and Poison Ivy going toe-to-toe over pumpkins of all things, Roman felt another flash of pain this time far stronger than before. He doubled over, wrapping his arms around his middle, and groaned, "Ugh!"

Roman was faintly aware of Jonathan cautiously placing his hands on his shoulders to try and guide Roman back up. His gaze, however, was focused on Eddie still standing across from him and trying to get through to him. "Hey," Eddie said. "You have a to-go bag ready, right? Is it upstairs? In your closet?"

"What? Yeah, why?"

"You're not cramping." Was Edward's chilling response. Jon shot him a look that would have been capable of reducing an entire city to ash so the brainiac shrugged, "What? I read some books when I found out you were going to have a baby. You know, to kill time."

"Fuck off Eddie!" Roman snapped. "Jon-"

"Hold up. Ed, you really think that he's-"

"I'm dead serious." Eddie replied and Roman didn't know if he wanted to throw his arms around him and thank him or smack him for approaching something like this with such ease like he was instructing Jonathan & Roman on how to carry out one of his experiments or how to bake a cake. Call him old fashioned but Roman believed that someone having a baby so close to you earned itself a little more urgency! " Call Victor and tell him to get over here, then we should try and help Roman into his car."

It didn't really hit Roman that it was go-time until he was being helped outside by both Jonathan and Eddie and when it did, it hit him like a ton of bricks. "Oh god..." In a matter of hours, he and Victor were finally going to be able to hold their baby. 


	47. Chapter 47

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I...had a couple of different options going into this but decided to go with one that fit more closely in line with what I've read regarding A/B/O stuff in the past. I also didn't want to make it graphic so do with what's below as you will. Skip ahead a couple of paragraphs if you're uncomfortable. 
> 
> On another more fun note the baby's name and gender is finally revealed, along with what they look like! :D
> 
> Enjoy!

If there was one thing the rogues in general could agree upon it was that they hated when Edward was right. He always found a way to gloat about his predictions, to hold them over the others' heads, and they couldn't call him out on his bullshit. In a way, Roman had been holding out hope for Ed's declaration of his impending labor to be one of his less common but still possible mistakes but as he sat in the back of the rolls with Jonathan, waiting for their question-asking companion to return with Victor and Bane in tow, he was hit with the sudden and disgusting confirmation that Edward had been right on the money again. Roman groaned and slumped back in his seat. Couldn't the baby have waited any longer? He had just gotten the car cleaned!

From that point out things got really hazey. Pain seized him and it became the only thing that Roman could focus on until it passed. Every time a contraction started, Roman would blackout, and come to in a completely different place or with a completely new set of people surrounding him. If he weren't in such agony, this alone would have been enough to send him spiraling into the deep end. Interchangeable nurses all touching him, shouting things, wheeling him around, and he didn't even know when they got him onto a gurney! "Victor!" He screamed. "Where the fuck are you?! Victor!"

It was alarming how strong these nurses were! The next time they were recruiting a new batch of goons, Victor was going to have to remind his husband of this. Not to mention if things were to go belly up they could provide their own first aid! The alpha had to shove his way through the assembled crowd just so his husband could see his face! "I'm here!" He screamed. "Here!"

"You remember what I said?" Roman asked, reaching out through the swam of medical staff to grab hold of his husband's hand and squeeze it tight. "You gotta handle this! Don't let them hurt them-!"

One of the nurses took the liberty of responding to that without even bothering to look up or make eye contact with the man. This wasn't the first time some omega about to give birth developed a fear of death on their way into the delivery room. It was just best to placate them when they got like this. "Nobody is going to hurt you, mister Sionis-"

Victor ignored the woman in favor of leaning down to press a kiss to his husband's forehead, "I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you." He assured him. "To either of you. I promise." 

~~~

The first hour was relatively uneventful. Despite the pain-induced blackouts, Roman managed to remain calm by squeezing Victor's hand while the other man whispered encouraging remarks to him. Three hours in and Victor was certain that Roman had crushed the bones in his hand. Over five hours in and Roman had given up on holding his husband's hand in favor of wrapping his hands around his neck. If it weren't for the constant prying of nurses and waves of pain brought on by contractions there was a strong possibility that he could have at least rendered the alpha unconscious. Catching onto this pattern of escalation Victor was instructed to stand outside of his husband's range of movement and opted instead to just massaged Roman's shoulders while they waited. They were seven and a half hours in when a sharp cry filled the room and Victor felt his heart skip a beat. "Roman-" He said, lowering his gaze to his husband who had gone almost completely limp. This time Victor's heart had to have stopped completely and he stuck his hand out, managing to snag a nearby nurse by the front of the shirt. "What's wrong with him!?" 

That was enough for him to catch the attention of the nurse in charge who came flying over to do a check. After what felt like the longest couple of minutes of Victor's life she cracked a smile, "I think he fell asleep." She turned to the rest of her team, all of whom had completely shifted their focus away from Roman after determining that he was fine. One handed her a chart that they had been maintaining and the head nurse did a quick once-over. "His vitals are fine and he's not bleeding."

Somehow Victor failed to see the humor in all of this. "Then why'd he pass out?" 

"You're kidding right?" The nurse asked. It was becoming increasingly difficult not to sock her square in the jaw. Victor was imagining a hundred different ways he could end her life as she explained. "Painkillers and exhaustion, dear. Give him half an hour, an hour at most, and he should be up again. If not, or if anything changes, then we can become concerned." 

"He-" Victor stopped his protest mid-sentence. There was no way he was going to win against this broad; not when she was surrounded by other nurses and Victor was unarmed. But he wouldn't forget about this. He was going to campaign for her to shoot straight to the top of his shitlist once Roman and the baby were released from the hospital. Speaking of which, it dawned on him that he had yet to actually get a good look at his newborn child. If Roman were awake he would have been attempting to strangle him again. "Where's the-?" 

"Did you want us to hand you the baby still covered in blood and fluid?" The nurse asked. Yeah, Victor was gonna kill her. He was going to kill her and he was going to make sure that she suffered. "We had to clean them off, take footprints, measurements, it only takes a couple of seconds."

"I-" Should have read one of those books Roman had been flipping through. Maybe then he would have been able to remember this stuff. Victor could feel the beginnings of a migraine coming on. He groaned and rubbed his temples. The alpha just needed to take a second to breathe and get his thoughts together or else he was going to find himself standing in the middle of a hospital room surrounded by a bunch of dead nurses with no idea where his kid was. If his husband didn't have enough reason to kill him before, he would then or, worse, divorce him. Victor was in the middle of plotting out the excuses he would use to try and save his marriage when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see another nurse standing behind him holding a small bundle swaddled in a mint green blanket. "Sir," She said softly. "Would you like to hold your son?"

"My son," Victor repeated and the nurse took this as a yes and promptly deposited the baby into his arms. The assassin made a noise that couldn't be described as a yelp or a whimper with how strongly it straddled the line between the two and adjusted his hold so that he could better support the baby's head. That was what people said, right? That you were supposed to be careful with their heads? For the first time, Victor was able to get a good look at the newborn and his heart melted inside of his chest. No one was ever going to hurt this kid, not if there was still air in his lungs and blood pumping through his veins. "My son." 

The nurse patted his shoulder, "We were out of blue blankets. Hope you don't mind."

"No, this...this is good." Victor told them. The nurses had managed to get the baby to stop crying when they were cleaning him up but he was still whining and whimpering in his father's arms. Victor held him closer, right next to his heart, and to his surprise, it actually worked. The newborn stopped whining long enough to open one eye cautiously, then the other, and stare up at the man holding him. "Hey buddy," Victor said softly. "Hey..."

What were you supposed to say to someone who hadn't even been alive for half an hour? Fuck, he really should have read one of those books! This felt so awkward, Victor just wanted it to be over but at the same time the thought of setting his son down for a minute made him want to scream and yank his own hair out! His son was just so tiny and soft and staring up at him with those big, brown doe eyes...Victor was weak. Not to mention that full head of soft, chestnut brown hair that Roman was going to have a field day styling when the baby got a little older. "You look a lot like your dad. Good thing, am I right?" The baby just stared up at him blankly with all of the intelligence and sass a newborn could muster. Victor knew to savor these moments. They would be gone as soon as this kid learned to talk. "Like you'd have an opinion on the matter." 

There wasn't much that they could do at the moment other than walk circles around the room but the movement seemed to soothe the baby who nuzzled even closer into his father's chest. Victor's mouth twitched up into a smile, "I'd take you for a walk but I don't think we should leave. Not before your dad wakes up." If Roman were to wake up alone in some strange hospital room with no idea where his husband and child were, things could get ugly. As much as Victor was looking forward to slicing that annoying nurse to bits, better to wait until they weren't in a public space where anyone could bust them. They just got this baby, they couldn't risk CPS getting involved. "Think you can wait then we'll go?" The baby yawned in response and Victor leaned in to press a kiss to the top of his tiny head. "That's my boy. That's my Adam."


	48. Chapter 48

Roman could not remember passing out. He remembered rushed conversations, pain, and he was fairly certain that he had his hands wrapped around someone's throat at one point though he could not remember who or why he had felt the sudden need to attempt a murder. He trusted that someone would clue him in on the details later. There had to have been a dozen nurses and doctors serving as witnesses to the event. He cracked open an eye and looked down at his arms. He tried moving them and to his surprise, he was able to. He hadn't been handcuffed to the bed so that was a good sign. Whoever it had been couldn't have been pressing charges. He looked up at the white and off-blue checkered ceiling above him and tried to retrace the moments that had led to him being there. One of his hands instinctively went down to rest over the curve of his stomach only to find that it was no longer there. Before he could panic and press the call button for the nurse, Roman became aware of someone sitting in a chair nearby midconversation, "-so as I'm speaking to Happy we here footsteps, turn, and the most beautiful man in existence enters the room. Now I didn't see his face at first because he was wearing a mask. He is just enamored with masks, but I knew then and there that he was just perfect-"  
  
"V-victor...?" Roman knew that voice anywhere. He glanced over and sure enough there was his husband sitting in a chair, holding this tiny bundle in a mint green blanket, but he could not see who the alpha was speaking with and no one chimed in to respond to his story. As far as Roman could tell, it was just the two of them in the room. "Victor who are you talking to...?"  
  
Victor's face lit up like a child on Christmas morning when he saw his husband was finally up and grinned down at the bundle he had been holding, "He's awake!" The alpha announced, carefully rose to his feet, and made his way over to Roman's side. "I think it's about time you were properly introduced to someone."  
  
To Roman's surprise, the bundle started to move and the blanket lowered slightly so he could finally see what was wrapped up inside. "Oh." Roman said softly as he stared down into the most adorable little face he had ever seen. Big brown eyes stared back at him underneath the most impressive mop of brown hair a newborn could manage and immediately Roman knew that he had to hold them. "Oh my god...This is...?"  
  
"Adam," Victor answered him and carefully deposited the baby into his husband's waiting arms being mindful of his head. He pressed a kiss Roman's temple, "I'm so proud of you. I love you so fucking much."   
  
"Adam," Roman repeated, a warm smile forming on his lips. He had yet to take his eyes off his son and didn't know if he would ever be able to tear his gaze away again. He leaned in close and gently kissed the top of Adam's head, "Hello there." The baby let out a soft yawn, closed his eyes, and nuzzled closer to his dad, falling asleep in a matter of minutes. Roman was finally able to break his gaze and looked up to grin at his husband, "He likes me!"   
  
"Of course he likes you! You're his dad!" Victor exclaimed, the loud noise causing the baby to stir but he stayed sleeping. When Victor spoke again, he did so quietly as to let him sleep. "He looks like you."  
  
"What are you talking about? He looks like you if you were a brunette." Roman pointed out. He could see it so easily in his son's face. The only real noticeable thing he seemed to have inherited from Roman was the brown hair, though he was certain that as Adam got older he would start to share a stronger resemblance to Roman. Quickly frankly though, Roman didn't care. Adam was perfect just as he was and the fact that he looked so much like Victor was something Roman found completely adorable. "That nose, those big brown eyes, that's all you."   
  
Victor made no attempts to protest that statement. Why would he? The world's cutest baby, _his baby_ , looked like him, "He's beautiful."   
  
"He is." Out of the corner of his eye, Roman saw Victor quickly and discreetly attempt to wipe his eyes on his sleeve. "I saw that, tough guy. Have you been crying the entire time I was out?"  
  
This Victor did attempt to protest though it was not very convincing seeing as he was still in the middle of trying to dry his eyes, "Not the entire time." He decided to leave out the moments following Adam's birth where he had been stumbling around confused, trying to figure out what was going on with his husband, where their baby was, and just trying to keep his head above water. Holding his son for the first time, crying, and telling him the story of the first time he had met his dad was something Victor could live with his husband knowing though. Even if it did mean that Roman was going to be teasing him about it for the rest of their lives.   
  
"Soft." Roman snickered, "Adam, your old man is a big softie!"

Victor rolled his eyes, "Four years. I'm older than you by four years." 

Roman ignored him in favor of pressing another kiss to Adam's forehead, "What should he call you then?" He asked. "Because I got dibs on Dad." And, all things considered, he had earned the right to choose first. 

"Papa. He can call me Pop or something when he gets older." Victor replied almost immediately. "...It's what I called my father." 

Roman smirked knowingly and whispered to their son, "Soft." But, as they had both learned over the past nine months, maybe being soft wasn't as bad as they thought it was. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In a perfect world I would have gotten this out for Father's Day but oh well. I love this short little chapter for a number of reasons including Roman being soft, a blink and you'll miss it Star Wars reference, and just bonding with Adam in general. Also, do any of you remember the bet Roman and Harley made back in chapter twelve? Looks like Harley won which spells trouble...
> 
> Since this story is winding down and I'm trying to think of something to write, I'll do a little mini-contest. If you can guess what Adam's middle name is going to be, I'll write a prompt you give. The only condition is that it's set in this established AU and isn't too gross so if you want to see an older Adam with his parents, like his first word or some of the trouble teenage Adam gets up to; Jonathan & Bane on their first date; Bruce, Harvey, and Roman being horrible teens together; Helena figuring out that Victor is alive, or the Birds of Prey reacting to Adam this is a chance to tell me. To be honest I want to write a lot more for this world so I will probably try any ideas you guys have, but if someone is able to get Adam's middle name, I'll write theirs first. Seeing as there are millions of possible options I'll give you two hints.  
> 1) Adam's middle name does not start with S for...obvious reasons that made me laugh a lot harder than I'm proud to admit when I was testing a couple of names out and thought about Harley writing Adam Something Sionis on the birth certificate because Roman & Victor were rushing her and told her to write 'something'.  
> 2) Adam's middle name is a direct reference to a movie that either Ewan McGregor or Chris Messina has stared in but is not a character that either actor has played. The character they're named after is a pretty big role in the movie though so it's not like it's some random background character with two lines.  
> I'm not trying to be sneaky or underhanded with anything here. I'm just trying to have a little bit of fun so if no one gets it, I will still be posting the next chapter that reveals it as I planned and I will just write any ideas as they come. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading guys! This has been great and has been a really fun way of taking my mind of things during quarantine! :D


	49. Chapter 49

If there was one thing Roman hoped Adam inherited from him, it was his love of parties. Birthday parties, holiday parties, graduation events, etc, what better way to bond with his son than by organizing a social event together? Adam hadn't even been two days old when his dad had already taken it upon himself to start making the arrangements of a coming home party on the roof of The Black Mask Club for the second they were given the all-clear to take their baby boy home. Victor had been more than happy to go along with it, to do the leg work for his husband while Roman was still in recovery, and by the time they had been released everything was set up and ready to go. It was time to introduce Adam to the rest of the rogues' gallery. 

"He certainly is an adorable little thing." Oswald Cobblepot couldn't help but coo upon seeing the tiny bundle in Roman's arms. "Adam Sionis. He looks very much like you, my dear."  
  
"Victor's eyes though." Eddie pointed out, peering over Oswald's shoulder to get a better look. "It's kind of eery in a way. Never thought those big browns could actually look innocent."   
  
Victor's mouth twisted up into a smirk, "Give him time."   
  
"What's his middle name?" Cobblepot asked.   
  
Both Victor and Roman shifted awkwardly and exchanged a look. At that exact moment, Harley appeared, happily scooping Adam up and bouncing off to show her new godchild off while his parents were left trying to form a response to what should have been an obvious question. Roman coughed awkwardly and managed to get the words out of his mouth, "Well, actually, Harley picked it out."  
  
"What?" Edward and Oswald asked in unison.   
  
"Early into things she and I made a bet that if she guessed the gender correctly, she could pick a middle name," Roman explained and, in hindsight, it had been incredibly stupid of him to make such a risky bet. It had all been up to chance so he really had no business making that dumb wager. "So his full name is Adam Anakin Sionis."  
  
Eddie let out a sharp laugh while Cobblepot went completely pale and looked like Roman had leaned over and slapped him. The Penguin clutched at his chest, "Oh my god."  
  
"It was the lesser of two evils, gentlemen. I assure you that." But that wasn't really saying much. They had spent nearly three hours in his hospital room just going over possible middle names before Harley finally gave her ultimatum; either Adam's middle name would be Anakin or it would be Aberycusgentylis. When asked where she had heard of such a ridiculous name, the clown refused to answer and stood firm. Anakin or Aberycusgentylis. Taking into consideration that Adam was eventually going to have to learn how to spell his name, the decision had been easy but still painful.   
  
That seemed to be enough to soothe the other two criminals, at least for the moment. Eddie was able to divert their conversation towards some heist he had been planning at the Gotham Natural History Museum and, of course, Oswald had to jump in and offer his opinion on the matter. With their companions occupied, Victor and Roman decided to give them some space and go stand closer to Harley with Adam, just in case they were needed. Victor waited until they were far enough away from everyone else to whisper a question in his husband's ear, "Harley picked out his middle name?"  
  
"Yes." Roman replied. "Did you honestly think Anakin was my first choice?"  
  
"In my defense, you were pretty out of it on painkillers." Victor pointed out. "But Harley didn't win the bet."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"Well, we made the bet right? But she told me that the baby was going to be a girl."  
  
"No, she said bo-" Roman froze. Victor hadn't been in the room with them when Harley so confidently announced that they were going to have a boy. It would have been oh so easy for her to bring up the topic of the baby's gender around Victor and hedge her bet. The gang leader scowled, his fists clenched at his sides, "We've been had!" He declared. "Worse, we've been had and we can't do a damn thing about it! She's Adam's godmother! Crafty bitch!"   
  
For the briefest of moments, anger flashed in Victor's eyes. It quickly faded when both parties turned to get a good look at the clown in question, currently cuddling Adam who was lapping up her attention and giggling, while both Ivy and Cassandra tried to get a better look at him. "...She's good with him though."   
  
"Yeah, she is." Roman admitted with a sigh, his own anger dissipating the longer he looked at his child in the company of his godmother and her family. It was hard to hold onto that fury when Harley was making Adam so happy. It would be criminal to take something that caused him so much joy away from him so Harley could stay. Assuming she kept up her good behavior. Roman smirked at his husband and snaked an arm around the other man's shoulders before adding a snarky little, "And you like her."

"What are you talking about?" Victor asked and while his voice didn't waver, Roman could tell that he was caught off guard by this remark. His husband really wasn't as sneaky as he thought he was. 

"I know that you and Harley get breakfast together on Thursdays." The omega explained. And they had been doing so for months now. Roman would have had to have been an idiot not to notice his husband's absence those mornings. He never said anything though. Roman had never been a morning person so every time he just curled around the nearest pillow and immediately fell back asleep. It was a poor substitute for the warm body of his right hand but he made it work. "I can only assume it was for some egg-related shenanigans." 

Victor rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. What had started out as a spur of the moment trip to some little hole in the wall store to get greasy breakfast sandwiches had quickly turned into a regular thing when it became clear to everyone that Roman's sensitivity to eggs was not going anywhere any time soon. "You would be right." 

"Aww, Zsasz made a friend." Roman teased, earning himself an eye-roll from his husband. They stayed like that for a few moments, the gang leader leaning against his husband as they watched their companions dote and fawn over the new baby, before Victor started to shift on the spot. "You really want to brag about Adam don't you?" Roman asked, "Go ahead." 

The assassin grinned from ear to ear and leaned in to press a quick kiss to his husband's lips before running off to do exactly that, "Love you." 

Harley Quinn and Victor Zsasz had much more in common than Roman could have hoped for. In another life, one where they were both straight & boring and Roman did not exist (because even if Roman was dead, Victor would never even consider straying from the other man's side. Nonexistence was the only excuse), they could have been a power couple. Roman shuddered at the thought. The streets of Gotham would run red with blood and be completely littered with bodies left in the wake of their massacre. It was a tempting thought but Roman preferred this universe any day. Victor and Harley could still wipe out the entire city, with the rest of their rogues' gallery joining in on the carnage, only afterward Gotham's Black Mask got to fuck his husband amidst the gore. Roman lingered on the spot; he watched as Zsasz joined the girls and Adam, upon realizing that his Papa was nearby, started squealing and reaching for him. Harley handed him over and Victor pressed a soft kiss to his son's forehead. Roman sighed. Something about seeing his husband, the love of his life, his righthand man, holding their son and getting him to giggle...Fuck! Roman wanted another! 

Not even a year ago Roman would have gagged at the thought of this; of the nuclear family, of family and marriage and babies, of thinking it was really fucking hot whenever Victor held their child, it was almost comical to see where he stood now. All those years growing up under his parents' thumb, of seeing his associates dangle their families in front of him as if having a spouse, having children, somehow made them good people and deserving of his business, it had poisoned him against the idea of ever having one of his own. He should have known better. Richard and Lorraine poisoned everything that they touched and those who tried to justify their actions as the right thing by being a parent were nothing more than a bunch of idiots trying to use their children as pawns in their own personal game of chess. Roman knew otherwise now. He knew that he was still a piece of shit, a horrible person, a criminal in the highest degree of the law, and that having Adam didn't change that, but he was not sick that he would dare sink to their level. Adam was Adam, his baby, and unless he came to his parents with the request to take over the family business Roman was not going to force him into it. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Roman spotted Jonathan over near the edge of the roof leaning against the ledge and taking in the Gotham city skyline. Bane had been roped into Oswald and Eddie's conversation, most likely waiting to see if he was going to get a request to throw Riddler off the roof again, so Roman saw this as an opportunity to slip over and have a word with the other guy. There had been something in the back of his mind these past couple of days that he had been meaning to speak with Jon about. He walked over and joined him in leaning against the brick, "Hey Jonathan," He greeted him. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"Fine. Why?" The man in question asked. "What makes you think I'm not okay?"  
  
"Because we kinda usurped your Halloween. It's your thing, your day, and with Adam coming it feels like we may have taken away your spotlight."  
  
"Are you kidding? Roman, I'm not mad because your son was born close to Halloween. If anything I'm thrilled because you've now been saddled with a life of Halloween themed birthday parties that you're inevitably going to turn to me for help with," The other man pointed out. Roman had to admit there was some sound logic in his argument. He always turned to the Scarecrow for help in planning events for the club during October, even before the alliance was set up, and now he was starring down the barrel of a life of spooky-themed parties that was inevitably going to get tiresome and repetitive if planning was left to him alone. Roman Sionis may have been the king of party planning but even he couldn't manage this on his own and he had banned Victor from participating in any Halloween planning after his bloody bash back in '06. If a bunch of entitled college kids couldn't stomach hyperrealistic gore and entrails hanging from the ceiling, then a bunch of toddlers definitely couldn't. "And I have something that, if I was actually bitter about this whole thing which I promise you I'm not, I could use to get the attention back on me."   
  
"Oh yeah? What's that?" Had Jonny-boy been holding out on them? Jonathan smiled a little and glanced down at himself, slowly raising his hand and placing it against the flat of his stomach. The gang leader's eyes widened as he connected the dots, "No way!" Was Adam really going to have a couple of friends to play with so soon?  
  
"If all goes well it will happen sometime in May."   
  
"Bane?" Roman asked and immediately regretted such a stupid question. Who else could it have been? His suspicion was confirmed with a slight nod from Jonathan. "Bane! Oh my god! That kid is going to be huge-"  
  
Jonathan winced, "Please don't remind me of that right now. I got bigger problems."  
  
"Oh? Are you-"  
  
"I'm fine. It's just that there's a history of twins in my family and apparently I'm high risk for it due to my age."  
  
"Oh no." Roman thought back to everything that he had experienced over the last nine months; the constant hunger and cravings, his expanding waistline, how all of his favorite clothes didn't fit him, how the extra weight impacted his mobility, especially during his final months of pregnancy, and that had only been _one_ baby. Roman could not imagine going through all of that with two! "You're going to be so big..."   
  
"Roman!" Jonathan whined. "It's...happening quick. We only started going out a couple months ago-"  
  
"I know what you're going to say and I'm going to stop you right there." Roman interrupted him. "With anyone else, I'd agree with you but this isn't just anybody. It's Bane. If there's one person you can count on to be reliable it's him." Bane wasn't the type to run when the going got tough. The big guy was deadly, lethal, more than capable of ripping any one of them to shreds but he was also sensitive and just so damn loyal and affectionate to those that he cared about, namely Jonathan. This kid, these kids, were going to be spoiled and, when they inevitably grew up to be as big as their father and loomed over Jonathan, well, that was going to be the icing on the cake!


	50. Chapter 50

Roman rolled over in bed but instead of bumping into his husband's sleeping form, he kept rolling and ended up falling flat on his face in the middle of the floor. It wasn't the worst wake up call he'd ever received but it was definitely not Roman's preferred method of getting up in the mornings. He groaned and rubbed at his face until the feeling came back then pushed himself up onto his feet. Victor's side of the bed was undone; the covers pulled back and the pillows slightly askew, but the man was nowhere to be found. Roman looked towards the master bathroom. The door was open and the lights were off so Victor couldn't have gotten up in the middle of the night to take a piss or something. Huh. That was odd. The Omega yawned and stretched and slowly trudged out of his room and into the hall to look around for his missing partner. It didn't take him long to piece together where he had went. The light in the nursery was on. "Victor?" Roman called in, remembering to keep his voice soft in case Adam was still asleep. At some point this evening he wanted to go back to sleep and that was going to be impossible to do with a crying baby. "What are you doing in here?"

"Oh." Victor really was an unusual man. Rather than sitting with his son in the nearby rocking chair, which they had purchased for that exact reason, Roman found his husband sitting in the floor leaning back against the crib where the baby was still sleeping soundly. "Hey."

Seeing as the chair was free, Roman decided to sit down. "Is Adam okay?"

"He's fine. I just..." The Alpha shrugged his shoulders, "Missed him."

"I know. He has to sleep though." Roman pointed out. As if that made things any easier for them. The truth was it had been difficult putting Adam down at night and then retiring to their bedroom a few doors down to get some sleep. It didn't even take a minute to move between the two rooms but it still felt like a universe apart. If something were to ever go wrong..."I think we should get a bassinet so he can be closer to us. Just for the first couple of months."

"I like that idea. That's a great idea." Victor agreed with an eager nod. "...We're not smothering him, do you think?"

"Adam is literally two weeks old! We are not smothering him! If he was ten then I could understand but he's a baby and no one is going to make me feel bad about cuddling him!"

Victor cracked a smile and he inched slightly closer so he could rest his head on his husband's lap. Roman rolled his eyes but, nonetheless, started to run his fingers through the Alpha's hair. "You're such a good dad, Boss." Victor murmured. "Adam's lucky to have you. I'm lucky to have you."

"Luck has nothing to do with it." Roman retorted with a smirk. He took hold of his husband's scarred hand and lifted it up to press a kiss to the back of it. Feeling a surge of boldness, Roman slowly took the tip of Victor's finger into his mouth and flashed him a wink as he sucked. Victor let out a low groan and placed his hands on his husband's hips, carefully inching his way up towards the other man until their faces were only centimeters apart. It was that exact moment that Adam let out a loud screech from inside the crib. Roman pulled back with a laugh, "Your son has an excellent sense of timing."

Victor laughed himself and clambered to his feet. "Hey, buddy." He told the fussing baby in a soft voice and carefully scooped him up out of the crib. Almost immediately after Adam realized who was holding him, his crying died down to a couple of sniffles. "You're okay." 

Roman rose to his feet and stood behind his husband, glancing over his shoulder at his son. "Aww, baby boy." He cooed. "I think he may be hungry." 

"Here," Victor said and deposited the child into Roman's arms. "I'll go get it."

"Thank you." Roman replied and leaned in to press a quick kiss to Adam's temple. By now Adam's sniffles had stopped and he was content to rest his head against his dad's chest and stare up at him with those sweet little doe eyes. "Hey, how come you smile at Papa but not at me?" Roman asked and pressed a couple of quick but gentle kisses to Adam's face earning himself a series of giggles from his son. "That's what I thought. That's my happy little boy!" 


End file.
